Kindred Spirits
by JUCHKO
Summary: For 5-year-old Sakura, Suna was no different than Konoha...that is, until she finds a kindred spirit. Sister story to A Continuous Circle/And the Circle Comes Round, but it stands alone. [Part Two contains Time Travel]
1. A Sudden Move (Part 1)

Disclaimer: Another year, another story, another unintelligent question to be asked…

**Part 1: Childhood  
**

Chapter 1: A Sudden Move

A young woman stared at her reflection on the water spattered windows as lightning momentarily lit up the night. Her dull green eyes glanced over her pale form on the transparent surface, noting that even her silver hair looked lack-luster in the wake of the anniversary of her brother's death. Looking past her reflection to the rain, she couldn't help but feel that the weather mirrored her feelings. A storm was brewing.

Another reflection joins her on the windowpane. "Haruka, what is wrong?"

"I can't take it, Shin." she whispers to the glass, "Everywhere I look, I see him…" Turning around slowly, the woman looks at her husband as tears strain down her face. "This house, the park, the store…everything reminds me of Li, and it's tearing me apart! I hate it! I hate all of it! I just want to get away and leave it all behind!"

Shin's gray eyes softened, "You do not mean that."

"I do too!"

"No, you do not." he answered calmly, "You love Konoha as much as your brother did, and _he _loved it so much that his last wish was for his daughter to be raised here. You do not truly hate Konoha…and you most certainly do not hate Sakura, even though she constantly reminds you of her father…it is just the date that has you down."

Haruka looked down, "I know… I know I don't _hate _it… but…" More tears fell from her typical Haruno eyes, "I thought I'd be fine if I got rid of all his possessions, all his photos…but he still is haunting me." Looking up, she added before her husband could interject, "It's every day, not just today. Every time I look about me, I'm reminded of him. Konoha's just too full of memories. I can't stand it anymore!"

Shin's red-brown hair covered his eyes as he watched his wife break down weeping. Slowly he asked, keeping all emotion from his voice, "Are you saying you want to leave Konoha?" Haruka froze. Never before had she contemplated leaving. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything.

After many minutes of silence, Haruka unfroze, wiping her tears away as she looked at her husband. Her green eyes flared with determination, "Yes."

Eyes still shadowed, Shin pressed, "Even though it would mean going against your brother's last wish to have Sakura raised in the village he died for?"

Haruka hesitated, but slowly she nodded. "Yes…" her voice was quiet, barely a whisper, but she repeated it louder the second time as she started to walk across their bedroom, "Yes. We're leaving. Tonight!"

Shin raised his eyebrows stoically, "Tonight? And where do you think we would go?"

Haruka didn't even turn around to look as she started pulling clothes from the closet and thrusting them in a large bag. "I don't care! I have an uncle in Kiri-the Mist village, or we could go to your family's place in Suna. Heck, we could go to some little place in the middle of nowhere where no one knows us for all I care!" Shin placed a hand on Haruka's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down; she brushed it off and continued packing. "My mind's made up. Go get Sakura ready. We leave as soon as we're packed."

With a sigh, Shin turned just in time to see a flash of pink disappear from the doorway. Another sigh escaped him as he slowly exited the room and headed down the hall to the room whose door had just been thrown open. Entering the room, he thought he saw the five year old stuff something into her pajama pocket, but his attention was stolen by the look in her eyes as she turned around and asked, "Do we really have to go away, daddy?"

Bending down, he hugged the pink haired child. "Haruka has decided that we are leaving, so yes." As he pulled away he added softy, "And what have we told you about calling us that? You know we are not your parents." Her large green eyes, the exact copy of her aunt's, stared up at him blankly, as if asking why she _couldn't _call him daddy. He shook his head. "Let us get your stuff put together. Who knows how long we have before she is ready to go."

* * *

Sakura held her aunt's hand tightly as they neared the large earthen buildings sprouting from the sand. They had been traveling for days, and she was tired of sleeping outside, but this new village scared her. The way the buildings loomed over her, not at all like buildings in Konoha, made her feel insecure. Why hadn't her uncle said no? She'd wanted to ask, but she just couldn't bring herself to. Besides, her aunt hadn't cried since they left…Sakura didn't want her to start crying again…so she decided not to talk about it.

They neared an opening in the looming wall, which was momentarily hiding the earthen buildings from Sakura's sight. She felt safer in its shadow, that is, until a deep voice called out roughly, "Halt!" Sakura clung to her aunt as a mountain of a man appeared in the middle of the gateway, "I don't recognize you, madam. Where are you from and what's your business?" Sakura's uncle was the one who answered calmly, though, stepping up beside his wife.

"Come now, Ryu, surely you have not forgotten me."

'Ryu' glared at him, but a moment later he exclaimed, "Shin? Shin Kaneko?" Sakura watched wide eyed as her uncle smiled with a nod, causing the moving mountain to burst out laughing-something which frightened Sakura even more. Her fear increased ten-fold when the giant turned his eyes back on her and her aunt. "I take it that this is the woman you left Suna for?"

"Yes, Ryu, meet my wife, Haruka. And this is Sakura. Now, Sakura, do not hide, Ryu will not hurt you." Sakura just shook her pink mop of hair no as she clung desperately to her aunt. "I am sorry." She heard him apologize, "She is not very good with strangers." After a pause, he added, placing a hand on Sakura's back reassuringly, "It is great seeing you again, but we should be going. Come along, Sakura." Sakura didn't loosen her grip on her aunt's hand until after they were well out of sight of the huge man.

They walked on until they came up to a round house that looked like all the other houses that Sakura had seen. They had almost reached the door when it was thrown open and a young woman with the same hair and eyes as Shin burst out with a squeal, "Baby brother!" The woman flung herself at Shin, nearly tackling him to the ground. "It's been forever!" Releasing her brother, she exclaimed, "Haruka, you look well! I haven't seen you since the wedding. What's it been, ten years? And you must be little Sakura! Oh, what am I doing, keeping you all out here in the noon sun? Come in, come in."

The house was small, but cozy, and was definitely cooler than outside. Sakura was thankful for that. She wasn't sure she liked the dry heat of this desert village. As their host brought drinks and asked questions of the adults, Sakura slowly relaxed. Maybe it was the welcoming atmosphere, or maybe it was the fact that their host resembled her uncle so much, but when the energetic woman addressed Sakura, she wasn't as bashful as she normally would have been.

"So, Sakura, what do you think of Suna so far?"

Sakura said the first thing that came to mind, "Hot." The woman's gray eyes danced as she pressed for Sakura to say more. "Well…uh…" Sakura looked around the room, feeling nervous again, "I…" she knew she couldn't say it was scary, that would be mean. What could she say? "Uh, I…" The woman was looking at her so expectantly. The bashfulness returned. Looking at the floor, Sakura hid behind her pink hair as she mumbled, "I don't know…ma'am…I'm sorry…"

"How adorable!" The ear-piercing squeal reverberated around the room as the woman threw herself on Sakura, hugging her tightly and nearly scaring the girl to death. "You're just too cute!" She exclaimed as she released a petrified Sakura. "Oh and just call me Auntie Youko!" Sakura, at a loss for words, just nodded.

"Sis…" Shin trailed off with a sigh, shaking his head. Rather than remarking on her over exuberance, Shin tried to appeal to her common sense, "I know you are excited that we have come, sis, but do you not think it is a bit too soon for Sakura to have made an opinion? We only just got here."

Youko pouted, "Yeah, I guess you're right…" Turning back to Sakura she said, exuberant once more, "You'll just have to tell me later! Oh!" spinning back to her brother and sister-in-law, she queried as if the thought had only just hit her, "How long are you here for? I mean, I only got your messenger bird saying that you were on your way this morning."

Haruka, always the direct one, answered, "We were hoping we could live here with you, at least until we can find a house of our own."

Youko's eyes widened, "Of course you're welcome here, but…what's the reason? I mean, you were so dead set about staying in Konoha when you married Shin, so…?" Sakura didn't catch the glances sent her way first by her aunt, and then by Youko; she was looking out the window. Youko nodded to Haruka, "Sakura, dear," Sakura turned, looking at Youko through her bangs, "there's a park nearby. Some of the local children should be playing there about now and I'm sure they'd love to meet you. Why don't you go make some new friends while we adults talk? Just go out the door and turn left. It won't be long before you see it."

* * *

Well, that's the first chapter of Kindred Spirits, sister story to A Continuous Circle/And The Circle Comes Round. You don't have to have read them to understand what's going on, so don't worry (though, if you want to read them you are welcome to it). For those who have read them, this is set in a separate, but connected, world, if that makes any sense.

Anyhow, my life has been hectic as of late, and school has been overbearing, so I can't promise that chapters will come out often or on any set schedule. However, the few people that voted on my poll said they would like this posted whether or not I updated often, and so here it is. I have enough written out so far to make another two chapters (that's also a part of why this chapter is so short). After that, since it's not written yet and I can't see the future, when updates will come is an unknown; though I promise to finish this eventually. I have plenty of ideas scribbled down, I just need to get them incorporated into the story itself.

As with all my stories, reviews and constructive criticism is welcome to join the new-year bash, but flamers would just ruin the party, so they are a no go. All who review, whether they be anonymous or signed in, shall be given a place of honor on my _pretty list_, so look forward to it!

I hope everyone enjoys Kindred Spirits!


	2. Important questions

Disclaimer: To own, or not to own...that really isn't the question.

Chapter 2: Important questions

Sakura found that her aunt had been right. The park was indeed occupied by a number of unaccompanied children. As Sakura slowly approached, an unnatural silence fell over the sandy playground—that is, until one of the older boys pointed a finger at her, exclaiming to his friends, "What a weirdo!"

"It's got pink hair! And what a _forehead_!" another quipped in, setting off the other children in a barrage of insults and laughter. Sakura shrank back as the children advanced on her.

"That's no forehead! It's too big!"

"You're right, it's more like a billboard!"

"Only billboards look better!" That got everyone laughing.

Tears pricked Sakura's eyes at the familiar words. She'd heard variations of them every day back in Konoha. "W-why are you—kyaa!" Sakura was cut off as the boy who'd called her a weirdo pushed her down.

"Go away, we don't want an outsider like you here!" The children behind him voiced their agreement—one did more than voice. A ball was thrown, hitting Sakura's head hard and making her tears spill over as it bounced out of sight. A voice jeered from the crowd, soon followed by others.

"You heard him, you stupid mop head!"

"You don't belong here, pinky!"

"Leave before we make you!"

Sakura tried to stumble up and away, but despite what the crowd was yelling they had surrounded her and she couldn't escape. Terrified, five-year-old Sakura did the only thing she could ever think to do in this situation: crying, she curled into a ball, covering her head with her hands to protect it from whatever next they threw at her. Why did this always have to happen everywhere she went? Konoha, Suna, there was no real difference. She'd never made any friends there, and she obviously wouldn't be making any friends here, either.

Sakura whimpered as someone kicked sand at her. She heard shouting, but she couldn't bring herself to listen anymore. More sand and a couple stones followed, then suddenly the unnatural silence from before had returned. Fearfully, Sakura raised her head just as a shadow fell upon her. On reflex she flinched, but nothing happened. Shakily looking up, Sakura found that aside from the caster of the shadow, she was all alone. The other children had vanished.

Suddenly the shadow moved. Sakura threw her hands in front of her face, but the expected attack never came. Cautiously looking up, one arm shielding her eyes from the sun as well as from any possible attack, the pink haired child found a boy near her age looking down at her, his face in shadow and a ball in his hands. Sakura recognized the ball—it was the one that had been thrown at her—but not the red haired boy. He hadn't been here earlier.

"Are you going to hurt me too?" She whimpered; the boy just stared at her. Minutes passed and nothing happened. The boy continued to stare at Sakura. Sakura continued to stare at the boy. There was silence. Slowly Sakura stood up, wincing as sand got into a scrape on her knee but otherwise never looking away from the boy. He flinched as she stood up, but he never looked away either. Little by little, Sakura reached out her hand, almost expecting him to swat it away rather than shake it. He did neither. Instead he placed the ball in her hand, looking at the ground as if he expected her to run away.

Sakura looked from him to the ball, then back again through her pink curtain of bangs. A small, uncertain smile formed on her lips as she realized that he was just as shy as she was. Tucking the ball under one elbow she stretched out her open hand again. "Hi…" she squeaked, then stumbled, "M-my n-name…" She paused, hating herself for being so unused to socializing. Gulping down her fear, she forced herself to finish, "…is Sakura. What's yours?"

A light of understanding lit in his black-ringed eyes and he slowly—probably as slowly as she had—reached out his hand. The most awkward of handshakes followed as the boy, his sea-green eyes large, practically whispered, "Gaara." The handshake ended almost as soon as it was initiated, but both came away from the experience with tentative smiles.

That is, until Gaara's smile suddenly dropped. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Sakura's head jerked up in surprise. Where had the happy atmosphere gone? "Why should I be?" she asked, bewildered.

The boy looked away as he muttered, "I'm a monster…everyone says so."

Sakura stared at him incredulously, for a moment she was too shocked to speak. "W-what? I…I don't get it…" Glancing at him, he looked so ashamed. She thought she understood. "You're not a monster!" she exclaimed. Clutching the ball tightly to her chest, Sakura looked down at her blood and sand encrusted knees and said to the ground, "Real monsters push people down for being different." Glancing up, her tears streamed down her face as she whispered something Gaara had never thought of before.

"You didn't hurt me, they did… Who do _you _think is the real monster?"

Sakura let the statement hang in the air as she watched Gaara's eyes grow large. He stared at her. She stared at him. They were right back where they had started, only this time it was Gaara who broke the silence with a whisper of thanks. Sakura tilted her head to the side and smiled. She wasn't sure why she was being thanked, but the fact that he had thanked her, made her feel all warm inside. Wiping away her tears, Sakura beamed, "Thank _you_!"

Gaara tilted his head to the side as she had earlier, only, unlike her, he actually asked, "For what?"

"Well," the five-year old girl slowly mused, "I don't think anyone ever thanked me before." quickly she added, thinking of her aunt and uncle, "At least no one our age." Looking down at the ball she continued, "Maybe it's because I've never been able to make friends…every time I try, they chase me away." Returning her gaze to the red head, she asked shyly, "Does that happen to you too? Do you have any friend?"

"No," Gaara shook his head sadly, eyes downcast, "Everyone runs away. They're afraid of me…no one wants to be my friend." Suddenly Sakura understood that he was the reason the bullies had left her alone, though she couldn't understand why they were afraid. She didn't think Gaara was a mean person, unlike the kids from earlier.

She decided to say so, "You're not a monster, Gaara; you're too nice!" Grinning from ear to ear she went on, "And you're wrong…" she loved how surprised Gaara looked, "You said no one wanted to be your friend, but _I_ do!" she paused, then added as a thought hit her, "That is, if you want to be friends." He just stared at her blankly. Suddenly Sakura could feel her courage slipping away as the seconds passed by and no answer came. "I-if you don't want to…I understand…I…"

"You'll be my friend?" His voice was filled with pure awe, and it silenced her fears. Unable to find the words, Sakura nodded. "You'll really be my friend?" he repeated, obviously unable to comprehend what was happening.

Sakura's smile returned along with the confidence that had begun to desert her, "Of course!" Looking around her excitedly, she wondered aloud, "What should we do first? There's a slide, two swings, monkey bars, a sand box…" pausing, she turned back to Gaara and asked, "Why is there a sand box in the desert? Isn't there enough sand already?" Gaara didn't know. "That's ok, but what should we do when there's so much to choose from?"

Black ringed sea-green eyes watched as the pink haired girl studied their surroundings as if it were the hardest choice in the world. Personally, the red head didn't care about the equipment. It was something that he could, and had, played with all by himself. Slowly he glanced down at what the green eyed girl had forgotten was clasped in her hands. After taking a moment to build up his courage, he spoke, "We could play with the ball…together." Sakura's face lit up in response.

* * *

Gaara couldn't help but steal glances at Sakura every chance he got. He'd never met anyone like her before. Not only was she not afraid of him like everyone else, but every time their eyes met, she'd smile at him. He wasn't used to it. The only people who ever acted halfway kindly to him were Temari, Kankuro, and Yashamaru, and even then, he could still see the fear in their eyes when they looked at him.

There was none of that in the flash of vibrant green that caught his foam green eyes as the ball bounced to him. All that existed was a happiness directed towards him that he was unaccustomed to. He picked up the ball and threw it, surprised once more as she giggled and ran after it, smiling at him as if he were just anyone…as if he weren't a monster.

She was different, and that unsettled him…but not in a bad way. He just didn't know how to act around her. He'd always wanted to make friends, but had never been able to. Now suddenly his wish was granted and it left him unsure of what to do. He'd never had a friend before.

Gaara caught the ball as a thought came to him. Hadn't she said she'd never had a friend before either? But why? He found the answer as he remembered what she'd said a few hours ago; for being different. He was about to return the ball when another memory struck him. When he'd met her, she was huddled on the ground, and the first thing she asked wasn't 'are you going to hurt me', which he'd heard a number of times, but 'are you going to hurt me _too'_.

At the time, he'd been surprised that she hadn't run away, and so he hadn't caught the true meaning of that phrase; and then she'd said she'd be his friend, causing all thoughts of her previously cowering from him to fly from his mind. But now it all came crashing back with perfect clarity. He'd seen all the other children running away, he'd seen Sakura crying, he'd seen her flinch when he appeared in front of her, and he'd seen her bloodied knees. This put with what she'd said suddenly painted a picture that was too clear for even a five-year-old to misinterpret. The kids that had run away had hurt his friend!

Gaara, so lost in his thoughts, didn't notice what was happening until he felt Sakura tugging on his arm, "Gaara!" she called, her voice trembling, "Gaara, I—I think the—the sand just moved!" Gaara's eyes widened as he noticed that he'd lost some control of his sand (it was just shifting at the moment, but nothing worse than that). He then noticed that Sakura a) didn't realize it was him, and b) was looking to him for comfort—neither of which he could remember having ever happened before. People always knew and always ran away…but she obviously _didn't _know, and instead of running away from him, she'd run towards him…

…Gaara felt his anger ebb as he looked to the pink haired burr on his arm. However, he never got a chance to explain what was happening (he wasn't even sure he wanted to), because just then there was a gust of air that sent sand (not his) flying all over the place. His friendly burr immediately quit shaking, eyes wide as she watched the small cyclone continue on by.

Soon Sakura was tugging on his arm again, "Look, Gaara, look!" This time, though, she had a large smile on her face as one hand released him and pointed after the cyclone, "The sand's moving all on its own!" Her eyes didn't leave the dust devil to meet Gaara's eyes until after it disappeared. Gaara knew, because he'd never looked away from her. "That was amazing! I didn't know sand could do that!"

Without warning she blushed and let go of him. Taking a few steps back she scratched her head and looked to the side, her face a little sad, "I'm sorry…you probably think I'm stupid." Gaara just stared at her, unwittingly causing Sakura to become even more embarrassed. "When I saw the sand start moving I just—I didn't know what was happening—I still don't—but—I just reacted and… Sorry."

A smile grew on Gaara's face, "You're funny, Sakura." He quickly added when Sakura's eyes grew wide, "I'm not angry." The relief he saw on her face made him feel relieved too, though he didn't really understand why. "But, you've never seen a dust devil before?"

Sakura shook her head, "No…there's not a lot of sand back home—I mean, where I came from, so I'm not used to it." If she wasn't from Suna, then that explained why she didn't know about him.

Trying to take his new friend's mind off of the sand incident, Gaara queried, "Why did you move here?"

He wished he hadn't asked when Sakura's face fell, "Mommy was crying…she said that our ho—where we were was reminding her of my father, who died soon after I was born…and then she said we were leaving. Daddy got her to come here to live with his sister after we'd been walking for a few days."

Confused, Gaara asked, "I thought you said your father had died." Sakura nodded, "Then how did he get her to come here if he was dead?"

"Oh…" Sakura blushed, "I did it again… Daddy isn't my father, like mommy isn't my mother. My mommy says that my father—her brother—died on a mission when I was a baby, and that he had said my mother died giving birth to me." Sakura gave a weak smile, "Of course, I don't remember either of them…oh, wait…" Sakura looked around, as if to make sure they were still alone, then she dug into her pant pocket and pulled something out: a photo. "The one in the middle is my father when he was twelve."

Her father had short, strawberry blonde hair that shone in the sunlight and his blue eyes stared confidently forward. On either side of him stood a pair of green haired people. One boy, one girl: obviously siblings and probably also twins. The girl was glaring at her brother, who had a carefree grin on his face and his hand held up in a peace sign. Behind them stood a golden haired woman with jade eyes and a falcon on her shoulder. Gaara noted the Leaf forehead protectors, but decided to say nothing about it. Besides, something else had caught his attention.

"My mother died when I was born too…" Sakura's face saddened, but Gaara didn't get to say anymore, because just then a voice called out Sakura's name.

Gaara narrowed his eyes as he saw the pink haired girl flinch, shoving the photo back into her pocket as a man with brown-red hair walked up to them. He calmed down, though, when his new friend whispered, "Don't tell daddy about the photo. It's _our _secret." The 'our' warmed Gaara's heart. Sakura smiled and then ran from Gaara's side, yelling, "Daddy, daddy, I made a friend!"

The man caught her up and swung her into his arms with a calm smile. He glanced at Gaara, no recognition in his eyes, and then turned back to Sakura, "And so you have…but what have we told you about calling us that?" He sighed, "Never mind, it is time for dinner. Say goodbye to your friend."

"Bye bye, I hope I see you tomorrow!" Gaara just nodded, and then watched as Sakura was carried away by her uncle, who never looked back at him. What an odd family…

* * *

That's the end of chapter two, I hope everyone liked it! I have one more chapter typed out, and I will put it out once I feel that I have received enough reviews to warrant such.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to come play in the desert with Gaara and Sakura. Flamers, on the other hand, are welcome to get lost in the desert and never come back. Now that that invitation is out of the way, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: AnimaniacXOX and MistressSamoyedXXKingWhippet for reviewing! I hope this time more people review.


	3. Friends

Disclaimer: I own many things, but the manga itself is not one of them.

Chapter 3: Friends

The next day Sakura ran to the park excitedly, hoping to find Gaara there. Her luck was in. He was sitting on a swing, kicking his legs idly, but he wasn't alone. Sakura felt her shyness return as she slowed down. There were two children besides Gaara as well as an adult, and they were all looking at her. Sakura was saved from having to figure out what to do, though, as Gaara slid from the swing and walked over to her, a small smile on his face as he said hello.

"Hi, Gaara." she mumbled, blushing as she felt eyes boring into her, "W-who are they?" He didn't answer right away, instead taking her hand and leading her over to where the three were standing. Sakura, feeling even more the center of attention than before, held Gaara's hand tightly, trying to hide behind him as he told them her name.

After a long, stare filled pause, the adult (Sakura couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl) bent down to her level and said with a sweet smile, "It's nice to meet you, Sakura. Where are you from?"

"Ko-Konoha…" she stuttered with a blush, looking out from behind Gaara, "But now I'm going to live here…with Auntie Youko…"

The adult's eyes widened a fraction, "Youko?" he asked, "You wouldn't happen to mean Youko Kaneko?"

Still holding onto Gaara, Sakura leaned a bit farther out as she answered unsurely, "I don't know if that's Auntie Youko's last name, but it's mommy and daddy's." Taking another step out from behind Gaara, she tilted her head, "Do you know Auntie Youko?"

"I do, she is-" Sakura saw something flicker in the adult's eyes, "She was good friends with my sister, before she died." Pausing, he closed his eyes, hiding whatever it was that was flickering in them as he smiled at Sakura, "By the way, I'm Gaara's uncle, Yashamaru." Sakura didn't know why, but she felt that his smile was fake. Motioning to the side, he added, "The blond girl is Temari and the brown haired boy next to her is Kankuro. They are Gaara's siblings."

Blushing (and still holding onto Gaara's hand for dear life), Sakura faced the two children, "Hi…" The two of them were just staring at her, their eyes wide…wait, no, they weren't just staring at her, but Gaara too. Looking back and forth between the two, Sakura couldn't help but feel confused. "Um…what is it?"

Both of them jumped, looked at each other, then looked at her. Sakura had no clue what was going on. It was Kankuro, though, who eventually broke the awkward silence—though it sounded as if he were desperately searching for something to fill it rather than because he actually wanted to be the one to speak, "Nothing…just…uh…you've got pink hair. Why?"

Sakura blushed, taking a step closer to Gaara again, "I-I don't know? I-I just… I always have." Was he going to make fun of her hair like everyone else?

To Sakura's surprise, the four-pig-tailed girl hit her brother on the head, "Ignore this idiot." The girl glared at Kankuro before stepping forward, "He's no good at talking with girls, despite practically being one."

"Am NOT!"

Temari ignored him as she explained to Sakura stoically, "All he cares about are his stupid dolls."

Sakura tried to stop a smile from creeping onto her face as she saw Kankuro stick his tongue out at his sister's back, "They're puppets, not dolls!" She failed.

Temari turned around to look at her brown haired brother, twitching, "Really? You could have fooled me."

Turning to Gaara as Kankuro made some comeback, Sakura gently tugged on his hand, "Are they always like this?"

Gaara smiled at her and whispered, "Not _always_…" Sakura couldn't help but giggle at that. When she noticed that everyone was now silent, she smiled. The fact that they were looking at her wasn't bothering her as much as it was before—she was getting used to them. Maybe this socializing thing wasn't so bad after all.

She laughed, "You're all so funny!" She then let a huge grin take over her face and, while hugging Gaara's arm, looked at each of their faces in turn as she exclaimed, "I hope we can be friends!"

* * *

Yashamaru watched intently as the four children played hide-and-seek. His eyes, though, were inevitably drawn to the pink haired child—Shin's daughter, Youko's niece. He'd known Youko and her brother practically forever. After all, they, along with his sister, had grown up together and had been the best of friends—that is, until they had started to break apart. First it was Shin who, having fallen in love with a woman from Konoha, left the village, and after that his sister had been ki—had died. It had been just him and Youko for five years now…

Yashamaru shook his head, diverging from that line of thought. The last time he'd seen Shin was at the wedding (Konoha and Suna weren't in the best of relationships, after all, so he hadn't ever gone to visit), and that had been ten years ago. Smiling to himself as a flash of pink ran past him, Yashamaru couldn't help but ponder. If he remembered correctly, Shin's wife had silver hair…maybe that was how little Sakura here had gotten her pink hair…a mix between her dad's reddish hair and her mom's silver hair.

He held back a smile as Sakura snuck up behind Kankuro (who was doing a very poor job of hiding) and jumped on him with a call of 'you're it'. He knew that Youko must be very happy to have a child living with her. After all, he knew that she wanted children so badly, but could never have any…that was why she'd never married…and it was also probably why she worked under him as a pediatrician. She wasn't the best medic around, but she loved the children and the children loved her—perhaps because she, herself, had never grown up.

Yashamaru sighed—he was thinking about her again. But, how could he help it when the closest thing to a daughter she had was running around, playing with Temari, Kankuro, and that mon—Gaara. Eyes narrowing, Yashamaru glanced over at the tree where he felt the malevolent presence of his nephew. He'd have to make doubly sure that Sakura was never attacked…he knew Youko wouldn't be able to stand loosing another person to the mo—Gaara.

As he continued to watch, Sakura nearly tripped over a tree root and, in the process of righting herself, happened to look up and spot Gaara. "I found you!" She cried joyfully, waving up at him. Gaara slipped out of the tree to join her and Kankuro, a small smile on his face as she jumped for joy. "Now I only need to find Temari!" The search didn't last very long because Temari, knowing the other two had already been caught and that therefore she would not be It, just crawled out from behind the slide with a smirk. Sakura pouted, "But I wanted to _find _you."

"You walked past me twice." Yashamaru knew Temari had noticed Sakura's face drop when she hastily smiled and added, "Besides, my legs were starting to cramp from bending down so long." Sakura's face brightened once more. Turning next to Kankuro, Temari said with a glint in here eye, "Enough chit-chat. With Kankuro being It, we better hide now to give him a chance of finding us before midnight!"

"I was only four! I'm not _that _bad anymore!" Screamed the irate six-year-old at his sister. Yashamaru fought back a smile. Kankuro had never really been very good at hide-and-seek… That was probably a bad sign if he wanted to be a ninja someday. Maybe he'd get better…maybe…_hopefully_.

Temari scoffed, "Whatever, just close your eyes and start counting." He did and the children scattered. Yashamaru's eyes once again found themselves following Youko's niece, though his senses remained in tune to any shift in the m—Gaara's Chakra. He didn't want any…_accidents _happening.

* * *

Sakura dashed to the edge of the park, remembering having seen a large rock that would be just big enough for her to crouch behind without being seen. Flinging herself behind it, she peaked out at Kankuro, who was still counting, and giggled. He'd never find her here. She was so preoccupied with watching Kankuro that she didn't notice that someone was standing behind her until she felt a hand grab her, throwing her roughly to the ground.

"Back again, eh, outsider?" Sakura's eyes grew large as she looked up at the children from the day before. The boy who appeared to be their leader was speaking, "Guess you didn't learn your lesson." Sakura shrank back against the rock as they came forward, but the boy yanked her up by the shirt collar so that her feet were hardly touching the ground, "We don't want you here," he practically spat in her face, "so leave!" Releasing her, he pushed her back, causing her to stumble and fall, hitting her head on the large rock with a cry.

Suddenly it was as if everything was going in slow motion. Gaara ran to her side and the sand was moving after the children who were now running away. And then Yashamaru appeared out of nowhere, placing one hand on Sakura's head (she could feel a coolness spreading and the pain dissipating) and the other on Gaara's shoulder. He was speaking, "Gaara, calm down. You need to calm down." He kept repeating it, but the sand continued to whip around them and after the children.

Gaara was shaking with rage. "They hurt Sakura!" He snapped at his uncle without looking away from the backs of the retreating bullies. He reached out his hand—his uncle shouted for him to stop—but the sand followed suit, forming a rough hand shape reaching for the children.

Sakura didn't understand what was going on, but she knew from Yashamaru's shouting that it wasn't good, and that Gaara had something to do with it…_and_ that it was because of her. Breaking out from under Yashamaru's hand, Sakura pushed herself through the sand filled air and lightly wrapped her arms around Gaara, "I'm ok, Gaara." she whispered, pressing her face to his back, "No more, ok? No more…I'm fine."

The sand slowly fell back to the ground as the bullies disappeared over the hill, but Gaara was still shaking. Sakura, trying to calm the red-haired boy, continued to hug him. She felt something wet hit the front of her arm; Gaara was crying. She didn't understand why, until his voice quivered, "Do you hate me now?"

Shocked, Sakura's arms dropped to her side, "Why would I?" Turning to her, his eyes were wide in disbelief, he started sputtering and waving his hands around.

"But I…you saw…I just…they hurt you and…I got angry…and the sand, it…" Trailing off, he hung his head and said quietly, "It happened because I'm a monster. I'm sorry."

For a moment, Sakura just stared, but then her face darkened as she propped her hands on her hips, "You _should _be sorry." Noticing Gaara shrinking from her she reached out a hand to take his shaking one and added more lightly, "What have I said about calling yourself a monster?" Smiling at his wide-eyed response, she continued, "You're no more a monster than I am."

To this, Gaara shook his head, "But I am!" he cried as more tears fell from his eyes, "The sand does things when I'm angry; sometimes I can't stop it—" If he had had a chance to continue, he might have added 'and sometimes I don't want to'. But as it was, he didn't because Sakura was hugging him once more, this time her arms wrapped around his neck.

She whispered to him, "You are not the sand, Gaara." releasing him, she smiled and added, "You're my friend, and you tried to help me. There's nothing wrong with that." Looking around, she caught sight of a distant Kankuro still counting, his eyes tightly closed. Grabbing Gaara's hand, she exclaimed merrily, "Hurry, let's hide! We don't have much time!"

Unbeknownst to them, they left behind a very shocked Yashamaru frozen in his place. He'd seen Gaara lose control like that before… But never before had he seen the catastrophe end so quickly and with so few casualties. Normally when things got so bad as that the sand was giving itself physical form, it was too late to reason with Shukaku's host. But somehow Sakura had gotten through to him… Somehow this small, innocent child had succeeded where no one else could…

…she had tamed the monster.

* * *

As time went by, Sakura found herself playing with Gaara more and more. A part of this was obviously because they were friends, but another part of it was because nobody else wanted to be around her, even the adults. Sakura didn't understand why, but things had continued like that until eventually every single moment of her free time was spent with Gaara. Sometimes his family was with him, but more often than not, he was alone, as was the case today. However, today she was glad that it would be just the two of them. Auntie Youko and her mommy and daddy had told her something today that confused her, and she wanted to talk to him about it.

Sitting beside the red-head on the swing, Sakura spoke softly while looking down at her lap, "Gaara, I don't understand my mommy and daddy. They always got angry at me, especially mommy, when I called them mommy or daddy, but today…"

"What happened?"

Sakura met Gaara's eyes, "I don't know… Mommy and daddy have been talking with Auntie Youko with the door closed for the past few days—ever since they took me to school to take the test to get in. The test was really easy, but ever since I took it, mommy and daddy haven't taken me back to school. And now mommy and daddy are saying…" Trailing off she shook her head as she whispered to herself, "It makes no sense…"

"What makes no sense?" Gaara asked, extremely confused.

"Mommy and daddy are now saying they are going to be my mother and father, and that it's ok if I call them mommy and daddy now. They say that I'm not a Haruno anymore, but a Kaneko. Mommy said that she wanted me to carry on the Haruno name, since her last name had already changed and all the other Haruno's were dead…" Shaking her head, Sakura continued, "But now that we're in Suna she says we need to be Kaneko's…something about fitting in better or being safer; I don't really get it, though. But what I do know is that I'm confused, because now mommy's supposed to be mother, but does that mean mother's supposed to be mommy? And what about daddy and father? I just don't know anymore! What should I do?"

Gaara shrugged, "Nothing, I guess." He thought he got the gist of what she was saying, but he couldn't see why it bothered her, "I mean, they're still the same people, right?"

Sakura blinked a few times as this sank in, then her face lit up, "You're right, Gaara! Why didn't I think of that?" Jumping off the swing with a smile she threw her arms up in the air, "Oh well, I feel better now, thanks Gaara. You're the best!" Turning, she got a sly look on her face as she ran up to Gaara, tapped him on the arm, and then ran away with a cry of "You're It!"

Gaara blinked, then jumped from his swing with a silly grin. The chase was on.

* * *

I hope people liked this and aren't too angry for the long delay. I had to write a sixteen page paper, so free writing time was nonexistent. I'm still pretty busy with schoolwork, but I'll try to type more up soon. But hey, at least this chapter was rather long.

I have part of the next chapter written, but it will be at least two weeks before I post it (approximately Feb. 24).

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome as are people checking out my deviant art page (I do have a picture up of young Sakura and her adoptive parents), however, flames are in no way acceptable company and I refuse to be addressed by them. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: FakeMirage, bluuulight, Panc, & 555 (yes, it is likely to be a long story) for reviewing! Hopefully next time you'll be kind enough to send even more reviews.


	4. Destruction

Disclaimer: liars, liars, go away, I shall not own no matter the day.

Chapter 4: Destruction

The weeks passed without much incident. Sakura soon found herself enrolled in school but found it a very lonely place. Gaara and his siblings had a private tutor so they didn't go to school and none of the other children would play with her. Some of them, including the bullies she'd first met at the park's playground, even made it their goal in life to make hers as miserable as they could.

There were many a day when Sakura would leave school with tears in her eyes or new scrapes and bruises on her extremities, but this was nothing new to her. Suna and Konoha were more alike than they may think. The only difference between the two, as far as Sakura was concerned, was that in Konoha she'd simply gone home after school to wait for her mommy and daddy to get back from work, here, instead of going straight home she'd swing by the playground. There she would wait for Gaara. Most days he came and they would spend the afternoon playing together until one or the other had to leave. It was the days when he didn't come that Sakura learned to dread.

Today was one of those days. Sakura had arrived at the park and had gone straight to the swings when she saw that Gaara hadn't come yet. She had barely made it there when a shadow fell over her. Smiling, Sakura turned, expecting to see her red-headed friend, but instead she found one of the older bullies smirking at her with a couple of his gooneys standing behind him. Her smile disappeared.

"Look what we have here." The leader spoke with a twisted grin, "Little Miss Mop, all alone and without an adult in sight." Sakura backed away quickly, almost falling backwards when she ran into the swing.

"What's wrong? Scared?" taunted the girl to the leader's left.

The boy to the right added in a dark voice, "You should be."

Sakura turned to run but made it less than a yard before a hand grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground harshly. "I warned you, outsider," snarled the leader as he descended upon her, "You should have left while you had the chance." Sakura shielded her face just in time to stop herself from getting a broken nose. Seeing another attack aimed at her, she quickly rolled herself in a ball, as she had the first time they had met. The leader and his minions kept shouting at her as their barrage of blows continued.

"You think you're so high and mighty, don't you?"

"Think you can just waltz right in and stink up the place?"

"Acting like what's ours is yours!"

The leader gave Sakura a good kick to the side, making her sprawl out on the ground with a cry as he exclaimed, "Not so brave now, are you, Mop Top!" Sakura tried to crawl away, but the girl ground her shoe on one of Sakura's hands while the other gooney stomped on her back, pressing her closer to the ground. Meanwhile the leader bent down and grabbed Sakura by the hair, lifting her head up as he spat, "Now that that monster's gone with the Kazekage somewhere there shouldn't be any more—"

"Gaara's not a monster!" Sakura shouted, forgetting the situation as she figured out who he was talking about. She barely got her mouth closed in time to not get a mouthful of sand as the leader rammed her head into the ground.

"As I was saying, there will be no more interference. So you listen well, Pinky." He lifted up her head again, "No one wants Konoha trash like you here, not even the adults. If your daddy wasn't so well respected they surely would never have let you in. In fact, I know they regret letting you and that ugly mommy of yours in, so do us all a favor and disappear." He dropped her head as he stood up, "If you don't…" he trailed off as he took in their surroundings, then added with a snort, "…we'll make what happened today look like a walk in the park." He then turned around and shuffled off, followed swiftly by his two flunkies.

Once they were gone, Sakura tried to lever herself up, but every attempt ended with her collapsing as pain shot through her body. Crying, Sakura lay there helplessly. Eventually, despite her pain and the hot sun bearing down on her, she fell asleep. This was how Youko, passing through the park on her way back from work a few hours later, found her niece.

* * *

When Sakura woke up, the first thing she noticed was that, although she still hurt all over, it wasn't as bad as it had been. The second thing she noticed was the too strong smell of the hospital. It took a few tries for Sakura to be able to open her eyes without being blinded by the light and by that time she could see a familiar face hovering over her. A hand gently brushed pink strands of hair off Sakura's face, "Oh, Sakura, you had me so worried. Why don't you tell Auntie Youko what happened?"

Sakura blinked as her tired mind tried to come up with an answer. "I got hurt in the park," she whispered, not wanting to talk about it. She feared that if she talked about what had happened, the bullies would come back for her.

Youko shook her head, a kind smile on her face as she prodded, "I know, I found you there. What I meant was how did you get hurt?"

"I—um…I fell down." Well, it wasn't a lie.

Something passed through Youko's eyes that Sakura didn't recognize as she spoke in a soft voice, "And who helped you fall?" Sakura didn't say anything. She couldn't unless she was willing to blatantly lie, which she wasn't. After a few minutes of silence passed, Youko sighed and backed up. "Very well, I suppose you can tell me later, when you're feeling better. It will be a few days before you're well enough to leave anyhow."

This woke Sakura up, "A few days! Why? I have to go to school!" Despite school being a very lonely place for her, she still loved it, since she loved learning. Seeing the look in Youko's eyes, she added hastily, "I'm fine, I can go!" She then tried to sit up, only to give out a yelp as her back coursed with pain.

Youko helped her settle back down, a stern look on her face, "You are _not_ fine, Sakura." Sakura shrank back from her Auntie's tone, frightened. She'd never heard Youko sound anywhere close to mad before. "I'm a low level medic, there's only so much I can do for you on my own. I've given you pain medication and healed what I could, but you're bed bound until Yashamaru gets back tomorrow evening from his trip with the Kazekage. Only he can deal with the intermuscular hematoma of your gastrocnemius, the fractures to your—sorry," she amended as she noticed that she had slipped into medical jargon, "let's just say only Yashamaru can deal with the injuries to you leg, head and back."

The soft smile returned to Youko's face as she tucked the covers back around her niece, "Go back to sleep, little one, it will help you heal more quickly. Go on, close your eyes." Sakura slowly did as told. Once her breathing had eased to that of a sleeper, Youko left the room, her eyes hard. She had suspected that Sakura may have been being bullied, but since the girl seemed content to deal with it on her own, she hadn't asked…but this went beyond bullying. Walking determinedly down the hall, Youko made up her mind. Once her shift ended she was going to find out who had hurt her precious niece and see to it that they were punished appropriately. One way or another, she would make sure that something like this never happened again.

* * *

The rumor spread like wildfire that Hayato and his pack were in big trouble. It was only known for sure that they had finally taken their violence too far, and that they had called down the wrath of the usually angelic Youko Kaneko, but this was enough to send anyone who knew her talking. Some said that they had beaten up a visiting tribesman's kid whose father had demanded retribution, others said they had nearly killed Youko's niece, yet others said that they had sent one too many people to the hospital, and that Youko was fed up with it. No matter what the rumor, though, everyone agreed that Hayato and his gang deserved to be punished; even those who didn't like the thought of people from Suna marrying people from Konoha didn't think it was ok to half-kill an innocent child, no matter who their parents were.

It was the first of these rumors that greeted the Kazekage's party when they returned from their business outside of Suna's walls from the mouth of a busybody guard. When Yashamaru heard, he sighed but wasted no time informing the Kazekage that he was needed at the hospital. Leaving in a hurry, he hardly noticed that the Kazekage's children followed him rather than their father until he was already in the lobby, where he suddenly turned and announced that they were to wait here for him and not to get into trouble while he was gone. That said, he went in search for Youko.

Gaara settled himself in a corner behind a potted plant, well aware of the glare sent his way by the lobby secretary. He wanted to go visit Sakura, but they had gotten back early, so she would still be in school right now. Besides, his uncle had told him to wait here for him and he had no reason to disobey. Nearby he could hear Temari and Kankuro getting into yet another argument. He listened to their entertaining fight until two people entered the lobby, interrupting them. Gaara remained hidden behind the plant while the child who had entered with her mother ran up to his siblings and started a conversation.

"Have you heard?" The girl gasped in a half-whisper, "Hayato is finally going to get it!" she giggled, then added before either Kankuro or Temari could say anything, "He ripped my dolly apart a week ago, so I don't feel bad for him at all! He deserves to have been caught for once."

Temari gave a sound of agreement while her brother whooped with glee. Gaara knew that Hayato had made fun of Kankuro's puppets more than once. "I'm glad he's been caught," began Temari, "but I feel bad for the tribesman's son who had to get beat up for the adults to figure out that Hayato isn't a good kid."

The girl giggled, "I agree, but it wasn't because of that. I mean, Sensei was already angry at Hayato for that, but that's not what really set her off. My granny volunteers here and she says that the other day Sensei's niece was nearly killed by him and his gang on her way back from school. She was angry, really angry. Granny said that within an hour of Sensei having stomped out of the hospital word reached her of Hayato's being found guilty and dragged before his parents."

Gaara felt a weird emotion writhing in his gut. No names had yet to be mentioned, but he knew that Sakura had an aunt that worked with his uncle here. But there were plenty of other people who worked here; it could be one of their nieces, not Sakura. Right? He was only gone for two days. Surely she couldn't have gotten in trouble that quickly? It had to have been someone else. It had to.

Outside the wind picked up and sand was thrown violently against the windows, but inside, few noticed. The girl who had brought the news surely didn't as she answered the question Temari couldn't stop Kankuro from asking, "It was that outsider. You know, the pink, mop haired girl—" The window shattered and sand swirled around the room in a torrent. By the time it settled down Gaara was no longer in the room, but running down the halls, peering into each room he passed, looking for Sakura.

What he eventually found both terrified him and angered him beyond words. Sakura's tiny form lay on the adult sized bed, only one arm poking above the covers. That arm had a tube attached to it at the inside of the elbow that led to a bag that hung threateningly over Sakura's red, blue and purple blotched body; there was even a blue and purple bruise covering half her face, the other half looked sun burnt. He couldn't see the rest of her, but he could guess that it would look the same, if not worse. A cold, dark feeling settled in his gut as, one by one, each of the room's windows shattered, scattering glass and sand everywhere in the room, forming a perfect circle of destruction around the bed.

"_**Kill**_"

Whether the voice came from Gaara himself or someone else, he didn't know, but the voice compelled the little red head out a window in search of Hayato. He was so blinded by his emotions and compelled onward by the voice that Gaara never heard Youko scream as she ran into the room he had just departed. If he had, he may never have continued on to do what he was about to.

* * *

Youko ran screaming to Sakura's side, ignoring the sound of glass breaking under her feet as she hurried to find out whether her niece had lived through her encounter with that horrible monster child. Reaching the battered child's side, Youko's hands flew over her vitals, and once she was assured that these were as they should be, she cupped the sleeping girls face and started crying, "Oh, my little Sakura…Thank goodness, thank goodness…I thought I lost—!" A hand on her shoulder made her jump, but it was only Yashamaru. She hadn't even heard him come up behind her.

Yashamaru moved past Youko to lay his hand on Sakura's head as Youko cried, "Oh, Yashamaru, why was that monster here? He could have killed her!" He gave no answer, but she didn't expect one, not while he was concentrating on healing.

It was because she expected her question to be greeted by silence that she was so surprised when a tiny voice mumbled, "'es not a m'nster"

"Sakura!" Youko gasped, nearly slipping on sand due to how suddenly she jerked around. Sakura's eyes were fluttering open and closed, her eyes still distant, but she was obviously on her way to wakefulness. It took all of Youko's willpower not to hug the injured girl. "Don't worry," she whispered, "you're safe. I won't let him hurt you." She was planning on saying more, but just then Yashamaru pulled away from the now wide eyed five-year-old and spoke hastily.

"I'm afraid I might have to take on that responsibility."

"What do you—?" Youko began, but was cut off as Yashamaru moved so that Sakura could see him as he addressed her in the same hurried tone as before.

Yashamaru's eyes where hard and cold as he stated, "Sakura, Gaara has lost control again." Sakura's green eyes were as confused as Youko's gray ones, but to Youko's surprise, her niece's confusion didn't last long.

Sakura took in her surroundings, asking worriedly, "Did Gaara's sand do this?" Hearing this Youko could only wonder how Sakura knew the monster.

Yashamaru nodded, "Yes, and now I need you to tell me something. Would you be willing to try to stop him like you did before?" Youko's query about 'before' was ignored as Sakura slowly nodded. "Good." He then reached over to release the IV from Sakura's arm. Before he could pick her up, though, a thoroughly frightened Youko latched onto his arm, stopping him.

"What are you doing, Yashamaru?" She cried desperately, "She's just a child. Leave her here. She doesn't need to go near that monster again!" Yashamaru silently detached her from his arm as Sakura shouted that Gaara wasn't a monster—not that either of them really heard nor cared. Yashamaru continued to pick up Sakura as Youko tried once more, "Please don't, Yashamaru, he'll kill her!" She may not understand what exactly he was planning, but it was quite clear he planned to bring her niece with him after the boy who killed his sister, her best friend.

Yashamaru wouldn't look her in the eyes as he answered, "I don't like it either, but she may be the only way…" Stepping over to the now-empty window with Sakura carefully held in his arms he added, "I promise to protect her" before jumping out the window. All Youko could do was watch as the one good friend she had left and her precious pink haired niece moved from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of a distant sand cloud that spelled doom and destruction for those nearby.

* * *

Sakura tried hard not to cry each time Yashamaru jumped to the next rooftop, jarring her injuries, but she knew she had failed when he spoke quietly, "I'm sorry, but there wasn't enough time to do more than what was necessary to move you safely." Sakura ducked her head, clutching onto Yashamaru with her one good hand as they soared over another gap. Her other hand lay cradled between her and Yashamaru, useless in its cast. It wasn't just her arm, she hurt all over, but the thought of Gaara's crying face the last time the sand had gotten away from him made her determined to ignore the pain. He was probably hurting more inside right now than she was hurting outside.

As they neared the settling dust cloud Yashamaru jumped down from the building into the mostly deserted street below. Everyone who could had already run away but there were a few people lying scattered in pools of red, either dead or injured…Sakura prayed it was the later.

The cloud shifted ahead of them, a fearsome shadow moving within. It was too big and lumpy to be Gaara, so Sakura was confused and frightened when Yashamaru approached it. "Gaara," he called, and she wished he hadn't because whatever or whoever the shadow was turned their way. Sakura couldn't understand why he called out again, "Gaara, it's—" Whatever else he had been planning to say Sakura didn't find out, because something barreled into them, the force of the impact tearing Sakura out of Yashamaru's arms and throwing her into the shadow of a nearby building. As Sakura struggled to right herself the sand cloud settled and the figure became visible. Sakura stifled a gasp. It _was_ Gaara…

…but it also wasn't.

* * *

Please don't hate me for ending it here. This was a bit longer than the previous chapters already and this line presented me such a perfect ending place that I just had to take it up on its offer. Besides, the next possible ending place that popped up would have made you not only hate me, but want to kill me for ending there, so...be grateful?

It will probably be at least another two weeks (around March 4th) before I get the next chapter up, but let me tell you, the more reviews I get, the more I feel like working on this.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to press the pretty button down below that says 'review' (and will perhaps be given a cyber cookie for their efforts), but flamers would burn everything up, so I suggest they go elsewhere. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: RandumlyxTwisted, Panc, QuietShadowz, psalmofsummer for reviewing!


	5. Blame

4

Disclaimer: …I'm too tired to own…

Chapter 5: Blame

_It _was_ Gaara…_

…_but it also wasn't._

Gaara's body was only half of what it should be while the other half was hidden by a beige and black mass of…something. Could it be sand? Sakura didn't have time to think more about it as Sand Gaara started towards an unconscious and bleeding Yashamaru who was already trapped by a wad of sand. Distantly Sakura noted that that had been what had hit them as she staggered upright, favoring one leg.

Fear surged through Sakura's trembling body as Sand Gaara sped up, his sand arm outreached as if to strangle the unconscious Shinobi. Driven by her fear for both of them Sakura threw herself from the shadows. Somehow she managed to reach Yashamaru before Sand Gaara and was able to throw her arms out wide, her back to the healer. As she fearfully faced down the charging sand covered boy Sakura saw that one of Gaara's eyes were yellow and black, while the other, though still sea-green, looked small and empty. It was like he wasn't really there…but she already knew that the sand was the one doing this, not him. He was too nice.

"Gaara!" She cried, struggling to keep her balance as the sand continued flying towards her, "Gaara, don't let it control you! You're not the sand!" The abnormal arm halted a millimeter from Sakura's nose. As Sakura watched, Gaara's not-sand hand reached up to his head, holding it as if it hurt, and he started shaking. "Gaara is Gaara," Sakura rasped, hoping that maybe her words could help him break the sand's grip, "Gaara didn't do anything wrong. It was the sand." The beige arm retracted, reaching up to Gaara's head as the other hand had done before it. His shaking worsened.

"Gaara?" Sakura questioned hopefully, but she heard no response. Fearfully Sakura took a step closer, "Gaara," were those tears? "Gaara, are you ok?" They were. Shakily Sakura reached out to him despite the voice in the back of her head saying she shouldn't. She was afraid she would be hurt more than she already was, but she couldn't stand to see him look like this. She was halfway there when the sand arm lashed out, knocking her down before returning to Gaara's head. Tears streaming down her face, Sakura forced her body up again. Now she could hear him crying and muttering under his breath.

No, she couldn't stand this anymore. It wasn't right…not the way he was covered in sand, though that did bother her, but rather it was the fact that he looked like he was in more pain that she was. Maybe not physically, but she knew mental pain could hurt worse than cuts and bruises. She wouldn't let this continue. She couldn't.

Stumbling back towards him again, Sakura dodged another sand arm attack, not through skill but because she tripped on her bad leg. Reaching forward as she fell, Sakura was able to latch onto Gaara. Sakura hugged him as best she could without the use of one hand, "Gaara, it's ok. It's not your fault." Sakura could feel sand hitting her back, each thump sending waves of pain down her body. She didn't let go despite the pain ringing so loudly in her ears that she couldn't hear whatever it was that Gaara was still murmuring. It wasn't until she felt one human arm and another half-human half-sand arm hug her in return that that it dawned on her that it wasn't that the sand was attacking her, but rather that it was breaking off of Gaara in clumps…clumps that she just happened to be under. With this bit of knowledge relief swamped Sakura. Gaara was back.

They both sank to the ground, Sakura because her legs had given out, Gaara because he followed her down, unwilling to let her go but unable to hold her up. Now she was the one being hugged. Distantly she could hear Gaara sniffling, "I'm sorry," she barely felt the tears that were falling on her, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm sorry—"

Sakura felt like her arm was miles away from her, but somehow she reached up to try to dry his tears, "Gaara," she forced the whisper out, "don't be." She planned to add 'it wasn't your fault' but Gaara was already apologizing again, so instead, to placate him, she said, "I forgive you." Or at least, she thought she said it, but her voice was so distant she couldn't be sure…and the ringing in her ears was growing louder. Sakura tried to concentrate on the red-head looming above her, she could tell he was saying something, but he was becoming blurry and the noise in her head was too loud…

* * *

"Sakura," Gaara cried, clutching her limp body close to him, a torrent of tears streaming down his cheeks. "Don't die!" He couldn't tell if she was breathing or not. But she had to be. She was his only friend. She couldn't die. He wouldn't let her.

"What have you done?" Gaara's head snapped up as his uncle's accusation smacked him in the face. Gaara couldn't speak as Yashamaru stumbled forward, one hand on his bleeding head, the other reaching out to Sakura's still form. His fingers barely brushed her before his eyes momentarily widened then narrowed and he whispered "…alive". That was all the warning Gaara got before Yashamaru scooped up the pink haired child, taking her from him. His sand was quicker to react than he was.

Yashamaru almost fell as sand lashed out to wrap around his ankles, pinning him in place. Gaara lurched forward a second after his sand, unwilling to let his uncle take Sakura away from him. He was afraid that if he didn't see her, she would disappear. He had almost reached his uncles side when Yashamaru's voice cut through the sand filled air like a kunai.

"Enough!" Gaara halted, looking up with eyes wide as his uncle glared at him…something he had never done before. "You've hur—" as he watched, his uncle paused, wiping the glare from his face before he continued in a calmer tone, "You've done enough already. Sakura needs medical attention now. You can only do her more harm…so let me go." Slowly the sand loosened, falling in clumps as Yashamaru's feet escaped, taking Gaara's only friend with them.

Dropping to his knees, Gaara watched Yashamaru's retreating back, his heart sinking with every step his uncle took without him. He just wanted to stay near Sakura, so why wouldn't he let him come? He wouldn't get in the way. Gaara only wanted to assure himself that his only friend would be safe. That she would heal. Why had Yashamaru acted so coldly to him? Why had he stopped him? He wouldn't interfere with the healers work, so why?

But Gaara already knew the answer.

Yashamaru blamed him. That glare had made it obvious. Gaara had seen that glare many times before, but never on his uncle's face. But now he had. His uncle blamed him for hurting Sakura. He was right. Sakura may have forgiven him, but he had. Staring down at his sand flecked hands, Gaara started to tremble. He _had_ harmed her. The pink haired bur he loved to play with, Sakura, his only friend…he had attacked her. He had hurt her. He was to blame…

An image of Sakura flashed before Gaara's eyes: _Sakura was on an oversized bed, only one arm poking above the covers. That arm had a tube attached to it which led to a bag that hung threateningly over Sakura. She was covered in injuries…_Gaara's hands clenched tightly, his eyes narrowing. He **wasn't** to blame, at least, not completely, not mostly. It was Hayato who put her life in danger, not him. Hayato had hurt her, had put her in that condition. If she hadn't already been injured, Sakura would have been fine. Well, mostly fine…

Gaara's face dropped. He'd have to work on that. He'd never liked losing control, he'd never liked being made to do things against his will, but he'd never before had a reason worth fighting the sand's control. Now he did. He didn't want Sakura to be hurt again…by him…or anyone else. He would never again let others hurt her like Hayato did; in fact, he would make sure the opportunity to hurt her never came up again either.

This thought in mind, Gaara got up, brushed the sand and blood from his clothes, and headed for the hospital, where Sakura undoubtedly was. He completely ignored the dead bodies of Hayato and two of the boys who he had seen hurt Sakura when they had been playing hide and seek in the park. As far as he was concerned, they deserved to die. No one would be allowed to steal his friend from him. No one would be allowed to even try.

* * *

Sakura was vaguely aware of her surroundings. She knew she was lying down and that there was someone else in the room with her, but she didn't know where she was, with whom or why. She also couldn't bring herself to care that she didn't know. She had no desire to seek answers, she was happy enough just floating here, wherever here was. Her awareness was growing dimmer when whoever had been with her disappeared, catching her fleeting sense of self's attention. After a time, Sakura was unable to tell if it was long or short, more people came in.

At first, Sakura could only tell that someone else was in the room…hmm…how did she know she was in a room? She could have been outside. But no, being inside a room would be more logical. How it was more logical she couldn't think of, but it didn't matter, it just was. But there was someone else in the room, many someone's. Somehow Sakura knew none of them had been the person from earlier. Not that it really mattered.

She was about to drift away again when a distant but familiar voice broke through the darkness, "—ow much longer?" Her interest had been caught again. She knew the voice, she knew she knew it, but she couldn't name it… Out of nowhere it occurred to her that the voice was not an entity unto itself, it belonged to a person, a person she knew. But who? Striving to find out, Sakura moved through the darkness towards the voice, only just now thinking to wonder why she was in darkness. Wasn't she lying on a bed in a room? How did she know it was a bed? Better yet, how could she still be lying down in it if she was walking through the darkness? She didn't know but unlike before, she now had a desire to.

Another voice wavered through the darkness, "—not sure—drugs haven't worn off y—" she knew that voice too, but like the voice before it, she couldn't place it. The voice continued floating in and out of the darkness, "—didn't want to, but her internal injuries were too serve—eal better this way. Sleep can't hurt her, and, before you say anything, she will wa—" Sakura knew she was getting closer, the person's voice was becoming clearer. No, it wasn't just any person's voice, it was Yashamaru's. Who was he speaking about? This time the answer came quickly. He had said something about drugs and sleeping, and she was pretty sure she was the only person in the room who was walking in darkness despite knowing she was still lying on a bed in a room.

As Sakura continued to fight to breach the darkness, another voice, neither Yashamaru's nor the voice that had spoken previously, asked, "How could you have taken her with you?" Unlike before, Sakura instantly recognized the speaker as Auntie Youko. She sounded more sad than angry as she continued, "He killed your sister! He's a monster! What made you think that demented child wouldn't do the same to her?" Sakura instinctively knew she was talking about Gaara, but she didn't like it. She tried to say that Gaara wasn't a monster or a 'demented child', whatever that was, but she knew it hadn't worked when the conversation was continued by the voice from earlier.

"Sis, Yashamaru has already explained his reasons." Sakura could feel her right arm start tingling as her, uncle, no, her daddy continued, "He had reason to believe Sakura would be able to settle the demon; otherwise he would not have taken her with him," the cloth under her tingling fingers was rougher than the bed sheets at Auntie's house, "and as he has told us, he was correct in his thinking such." Sakura felt like a pile of bricks was on her chest, making breathing difficult, but despite that she felt relieved. "She was able to calm the boy down and stop Shukaku from rampaging." Was 'Shukaku' what they called the sand?

Sakura was no longer lost in the darkness. Not that she was out of the dark, yet, it definitely was still dark, but it was a different kind of dark, the kind that came from closed eyes rather than distant minds. This time, when her aunt spoke, Sakura felt unhappy, "You make it sound like they're separate, as if that monster didn't choose to kill people. He's a killer, and he has been ever since he was born!" Sakura could feel the tears pricking her eyes as her beloved aunt continued, "If not for him, my best friend wouldn't have died five years ago! He murdered his own mother!"

Sakura gasped, her heart wrenching in her chest, her eyes flying open, "I'm a murderer?" Figures blurred by bright lights and tears jostled to get closer to her, but Sakura hardly noticed. Gaara had told her that his mother died giving birth to him, just as hers had, but she hadn't known that meant they were murderers.

A gentle hand brushed tears away fruitlessly, "No, of course not." Her mommy continued as another hand touched her tingling hand and yet another rested gently on her forehead, "What would make you say that? You're no such thing, Sakura."

Sakura didn't know the question hadn't been meant to be answered, "But Auntie said that—" her voice cracked as she cried, "that Gaara was a murderer because—because his mother died giving birth to him, just like mine." The hand on her forehead twitched.

"Sakura, you mother is right by your side. You don't need to worry." As Yashamaru said this, though, the other two hands jerked, the one on her cheek more than the one on her hand.

Gasping for breath, Sakura exclaimed, "Mother _is_ dead, mommy told me so!" Sakura didn't notice the way her adoptive parents tried to stop her, but she did notice when her mommy interrupted her when she was about to mention her father.

"There were…circumstances." As her mommy said this, Sakura realized through her tears that Yashamaru was giving her mommy a weird look. "I…" began her mommy so quietly Sakura wasn't sure she heard her right, "I can't have children." Sakura didn't really understand what that had to do with anything, but Yashamaru apparently accepted it as an appropriate answer because he asked no more.

Confused more than before, Sakura looked past everyone to Auntie Youko, who had yet to speak since Sakura had awoken and asked, "So, I'm not a murderer? I didn't kill my mother?"

"How could you have, you were just a baby?"

Youko's face paled as Sakura retorted sleepily, "But so was Gaara."

* * *

It's a day later than I originally planned to post this, but I didn't have enough written yet, so I figured people would rather wait a day and have a full chapter rather than get it on time, but only get half. After all, if I had, you would have been left most likely thinking Sakura was dead, and I knew no one would appreciate that. I hope this end, which isn't really a cliffhanger (at least, not in my mind) satisfies you but leaves you thirsting for more Kindred Spirits!

I'm rather busy right now with papers and mid-terms coming up. I will try to update in two weeks (around the 19th of March), but let it be noted that, depending on my work load, it may not get done until spring break. However, the more reviews I get, the more likely I'll rush to get the next chapter out (if I hadn't gotten so many reviews, I might not have hurried to finish this chapter and get it posted only one day late)

Reviews, constructive criticism, and people going to my deviant art page are 'kid tested and mother approved' (yay cereal commercials!), but I'm afraid flamers were kicked out in the first test run, so I can't let them back in. Now, onto the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: FullMo0n, minniemousemom, KuRaI-BlOsSoM, FakeMirage, LarkasBlessing122291, SB01 (thank you), hot-ninja-babe, & yina for reviewing!


	6. Sorry

Disclaimer: Even though the chapter does enough of this already, I have to say sorry for such a long wait. I had this chapter ready a long time ago, but for some reason Fanficon was having issues and wouldn't let me post new chapters.

Chapter 6: Sorry

Haruka sat beside her sleeping adoptive-daughter, trembling as she attempted not to cry again. No one else was in the room anymore, they had all returned to work, but she just knew that if she made a commotion her sister-in-law would come rushing in, fearing something had happened to Sakura. Haruka didn't want to do that to the poor woman, so she kept her suffering to herself. She also didn't want to draw the attention of the other people who worked here, but that was for her own sake rather than theirs.

The people in Suna didn't like Haruka, and they weren't afraid to let her know it. Normally their glares and exclusion didn't bother her (aside from the fact that she couldn't get a job because of them), but right now she couldn't stand to deal with them, she was too worried for Sakura. First she had found out that Sakura had been beat up by some boy named Hayato and was in bad condition, and now she was finding out that somehow Sakura's injuries had worsened. Worse than that, no one was willing to explain how exactly it happened. They had talked about a monster, somebody named Gaara and someone named Shukaku, and how Sakura had been brought with Yashamaru to calm down at least one of the three, but no one had bothered explaining what had happened.

Haruka was worried for the pink-haired child's future. She had originally wanted Sakura to understand that she was Li's child, not hers and Shin's, but not long after coming to Suna she realized that the only way for Sakura to be accepted would be if people continued believing that she was Shin's daughter. So long as people saw her as the daughter of one of their own, Sakura had a chance of living a happy, safe life here. This was the only thing that could have made her accept Sakura calling her 'mommy' as she was prone to doing. She had never before wanted Sakura to forget her origins, but now her origins were a danger to her.

Luckily, Sakura was still young. Although it tore at her heart, Haruka hoped that her adoptive-daughter would soon forget that her father was really Li, not Shin. It was too bad Sakura had had to speak out in front of Yashamaru about her birth mother; otherwise Haruka might have been able to claim her as her own daughter. As it was, she would now have to work with the story that Sakura had been born to a surrogate mother, and she would somehow have to get Sakura to understand and believe this story as well. Her happiness depended on it. That Hayato boy had already proved that even having only one parent from Suna was something worth hurting Sakura for. If the people here knew that she carried no Suna blood…well, she would make sure they believed Sakura was Shin's daughter, end of story.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," whispered Haruka, her green eyes filling with tears, "I don't regret my decision to leave, but I should have thought more about you before coming to Suna." Unable to look at her niece, Haruka directed her gaze to her shaking hands, not that she could see much of them through her unshed tears. "If I had chosen to go somewhere else, this wouldn't have happened to you. I'm so sorry, Sakura."

"Don't cry, mommy." Haruka jerked, quickly dashing her arm across her eyes before facing Sakura. The little girl's eyes were looking at her, bright and clear. That was a relief. The last time Sakura had awoken, her eyes had remained bleary from the effects of the drugs. Before Haruka could say anything, Sakura spoke again, "I'm glad we came here."

"You—you are?" Sakura nodded a large smile on her face that Haruka couldn't understand. Her step-daughter had been 'bullied' nearly to death and yet she was happy here? "How—Why—That Hayato—I don't—" It didn't make sense and Haruka couldn't even begin to give form to her confused thoughts. She didn't even notice she had started to cry again until Sakura carefully sat up with a wince and hugged her arm.

"It's ok, mommy." Before Haruka knew it, she was cradling her little girl in her arms, holding the injured child as tightly as she dared. "I'm happy, so don't cry." But she couldn't stop crying. She had almost lost Sakura, just as she had once lost her brother, and that thought terrified her. "Mommy…" little hands reached up to wipe tears from Haruka's face as green eyes mirrored her own from mere inches away. There was worry in those green eyes. What kind of 'mommy' was she, to be worrying her five-year-old?

Sniffling, the silver haired woman gave a weak smile, "I'm sorry, Sakura." She had meant it to be comforting, to show that she wasn't going to cry anymore, but the worry in those green eyes only increased.

"Don't be sorry, mommy, I like it here!" Apparently Sakura hadn't caught the change in the conversation. Before Haruka could correct Sakura's misunderstanding, the little girl explained in one breath, "Hayato may have hurt me, but there are Hayatos everywhere, but there aren't Gaaras and Temaris and Kankuros everywhere, so I like here better! Here I have friends!"

As Sakura gasped for breath, Haruka couldn't stop herself from laughing. "I understand," she said as Sakura gave her a weird look, "I haven't given up on Suna." Kissing the girl's forehead, she said with genuine happiness, "Now, enough about me. How are you feelings?" It was her stomach that answered with a growl. Laughing more, Haruka resettled Sakura on the bed, "Well, that's a clear answer. I'll go get Auntie Youko and some food. Be right back."

* * *

Gaara waited impatiently in a tree near Sakura's window for the nurse to leave his friend's room. It was a routine midnight check up that the nurse did with all of the patients, but Gaara none the less felt as if she was dawdling in Sakura's room just to keep him away from her. He wasn't allowed to visit Sakura, none of the nurses would let him, so night was the only time he could spend with his friend, even if she was sleeping. He always let her sleep—he knew that sleep was good for people who weren't him—and she didn't need to be awake for him to assure himself that she was healing. Before the nurse's arrival he had noticed that the bruises on Sakura's face were fading, the sunburn was completely gone and that the bag of liquid that had been hanging over her had vanished.

Finally Gaara heard the nurse closing the door. Using his sand he unlatched the window and opened it, letting himself into the dark room. He quickly found out what had kept the nurse in the room so long. "—who?" came a drowsy voice from the bed. Gaara froze. Sakura sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes with her good hand. "Gaara…?" The red-head nodded. He hadn't expected Sakura to be awake, but at least now he could talk to her. That is, of course, if he could think of something to say to his best friend whom he had nearly killed just a few days ago.

Making his way over to the bed, Gaara whispered, "Hi," but he couldn't bring himself to sit beside Sakura on the bed, as she motioned for him to do. "Sakura, I—I'm…" What could he say? She had already forgiven him for hurting her. It was he who couldn't forgive himself. It wasn't just himself, though; he couldn't forgive anyone who hurt her, even Hayato who had already been made to pay the price. "Sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, but I was so angry at him, and Shukaku—" Gaara gasped as the name passed his lips. He hadn't meant to tell her about the demon.

But Sakura just smiled tiredly, "I know, Gaara, it wasn't you. Is Shukaku what you call the sand?" Gaara could think of many better descriptions, but, unable to find his voice on the subject, he simply nodded. It was probably better for him if she didn't know about the evil entity living within him. Patting the space beside her again, Sakura said quietly more to herself than Gaara, "So, Sand Gaara was Shukaku…no, it couldn't have been just Shukaku, because Gaara came back. I know, Sand Gaara was Gaara being used by Shukaku." Sakura's face lightened as she clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "I think I understand what happened!" Her hands quickly covered her mouth as both of them turned to the door. But the nurse hadn't heard, and they both sighed with relief. When their eyes met, first Sakura, and then Gaara, started to giggle, trying their hardest not to be loud.

"How are Temari and Kankuro? What's been going on since I've been here?" asked Sakura as Gaara hefted himself onto the bed beside her.

"They're fine," answered Gaara quietly, "I think they're going to come visit you after they're done with class tom—today. Kankuro will probably show you his new puppet trick…"

Sakura giggled into her hands, "I hope it's better than his last one." Gaara snorted. He hadn't seen the new trick Kankuro had been recently working on, but he'd seen plenty of previous ones, and they rarely worked out how they were supposed to. "And what about Temari, what's she been doing?"

"Dance class," Sakura's eyes bulged, and Gaara knew an explanation was in order as to why his sister would be doing something she hated, "Father's making her take classes. I don't think she's doing very well, though."

"Of course not," gasped Sakura, "Temari has probably already planed a way to get kicked out of the class." Gaara nodded enthusiastically. It would be like Temari to purposely fail something she despised, and not only would she fail, but she would do so in a way that made it obvious it wasn't her fault she had failed.

Sakura continued to ask questions and Gaara continued to answer in whichever way he felt would most lift Sakura's spirits, but he had to be careful to avoid mentioning anything to do with Shukaku's rampage. Sakura was smiling, and he wanted her to stay that way. They talked about how she was unhappy to be missing classes, about what Gaara had done while he was on the trip with the Kazekage, and about the fights Temari and Kankuro had been getting into without her there to stop them. "And so," Gaara finished one of his many tales, "Temari broke the puppet."

Sakura nodded, giving a quiet laugh that was much weaker than he expected. Looking at her carefully, he noticed that her eyelids were fluttering. "Sakura?" he whispered.

Sakura jerked upright, "I'm listening." But as Gaara continued speaking, he noticed that Sakura's head was nodding more and more. He was just beginning to explain that during their trip his father had arranged to have a number of the desert tribesmen come to Suna when Sakura's head dipped once more, but this time it didn't bounce back up. Instead, her body followed it in a downward motion. His sand reacted faster than he did, saving her from toppling off the bed. At first Gaara was terrified because he didn't know what had happened, but then it hit him that Sakura had fallen asleep sitting up. Once he recognized this, his heart and his sand settled down and Gaara was able to quietly and calmly lay Sakura back in bed.

Gaara stayed beside Sakura until light was starting to peak over the horizon and he heard feet nearing the room. He then silently left the same way he had entered, locking the window behind him.

* * *

Sakura sat impatiently on her bed as Yashamaru examined her. Since she had woken up, she had hoped that what Gaara had said was right and that Temari and Kankuro would visit because she was bored out of her mind. Of course, she would be even happier if Yashamaru said she was well enough for her to go visit them instead. Either way it would mean an escape from boredom. The searing pain in her leg as Yashamaru pressed a finger behind her knee informed her that the second option wasn't an option.

As Yashamaru moved his hand first to her head, then to her back, he said, "Sorry. Your leg is coming along nicely, though it will still be a while before it can properly hold your weight." His hand moved again, this time to her wrist as he continued, "The concussion, though serious, was easy to deal with and luckily your spine only had hairline fractures. If it had been worse I wouldn't have been able to move you when I did, but your wrist had too many fractures to waste much Chakra on. It's healing without my help, and once your wrist is healed, it will be stronger for it."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, tilting her head, "How could being broken make it stronger?"

Yashamaru blinked in surprise, but answered, "When bones break or fracture, so long as they are properly taken care of, they will heal in such a way as to strengthen the bone, decreasing the chances of those same bones breaking again. This is why many ninja spend their time training by hitting trees, stones, and the like. They are strengthening their hands by fracturing them minutely, letting them heal, and then fracturing them again."

Sakura scooted forward, her eyes big. She'd never heard anything like that before. To think that breaking bones could be a good thing! "Amazing," Sakura didn't notice she had said it aloud until Yashamaru retorted kindly.

"The body is indeed an amazing thing, but even it has its limits, and yours," he paused as Sakura squirmed nearer the edge of the bed, "is already at them. Don't push yourself, Sakura. You'll get out of here sooner if you allow your body to recuperate." Sakura sulked. Yashamaru grinned, "Remember, fractures can't strengthen the bone if they're not given time to heal." Sakura nodded. She was still unhappy about being stuck in a hospital bed and she was still bored out of her mind, but she _did_ have her friends' visit to look forward to. She also had something new to ponder.

Just as Yashamaru was heading towards the door, Sakura asked, "Is there anything else?"

He paused in the doorway, "Anything else of what?"

"Anything else like broken bones?" Sakura could tell that he didn't understand her question, so before he could speak she added, "Are there other things that are bad for the body but can become good?"

Yashamaru gave just the tiniest of smiles as he answered, "Plenty." Stepping out the door, he added, "I have elsewhere to be, but I'll ask Youko to find you something about immunology. I believe the hospital has a children's book explaining the basics somewhere. She can find it during her lunch break." Sakura bounced on the bed happily, careful not to jar her arm. She had no clue what immunology meant, but if it was anything like broken bones, it was sure to be interesting. "Don't. Sakura, lie down and rest. I'll send someone to check on you soon."

Sakura obediently shuffled back under the covers, but she didn't feel tired in the least. Every time she heard feet nearing her door, she would sit up, expecting it to be whoever Yashamaru planned to send to her, but the footsteps always passed by without entering. After the fourth time of this happening, Sakura quit sitting up but she didn't quit counting. A fifth and a sixth pair of feet passed, and the seventh passerby seemed to be more than one person—she could hear two teenagers arguing about 'whose fault it was' and a man stating bluntly that it was 'both of their faults'.

After that group passed her door, silence came over the room. Sakura had almost forgotten which number she was on when the next sound passed through her door. The sound was strange, though, because it didn't sound like two feet walking. Tap-tap, thump, tap-tap, thump. As the strange sound slowly neared her door, Sakura expected it to continue on pass as had all others before it, but she wished it wouldn't. She wanted to see what was making the weird noise. Sakura got her wish.

The sound paused and the door slowly opened. At first, Sakura couldn't see anyone in the doorway, but then the strange sound resumed and first one crutch, and then another came into view, tap-taping as they hit the ground. Then came a thump as the person using the crutches hopped into view. The person, really a child no older than ten, closed the door behind them then continued slowly forward; their head and arms were wrapped with bandages and one leg was in a cast, thus explaining the crutches. Sakura had no clue who the person was until she spoke.

"I still don't like you." Sakura jerked into the bed as she recognized the voice of the girl who had stepped on her hand. "I doubt I ever will, but," she paused, and then forced herself to continue, "but I know what I owe you." As Sakura watched, the bandaged girl grimaced as she slowly and carefully bowed as best she could on one foot. "I'm sorry, and thank you."

As soon as that was said, the girl straightened and probably would have limped right out of the room if Sakura, in her confusion, hadn't quickly asked, "What do you mean? Why?"

The bandaged girl rolled her eyes, "I'm the one who broke your hand."

Sakura shook her head, "Not that." Looking at the cast on her arm she added, "I mean, thanks for the apology, but Yashamaru says it will heal and be stronger. What I meant was why are you thanking me?"

"Are you an idiot or what?" Sakura flinched at the girl's anger. The bandaged girl lowered her voice before she continued, though Sakura couldn't tell if it was out of consideration for her or fear of being found by a nurse, "How the heck do you think I got these injuries?" Something on Sakura's face must have shown her bewilderment, because the girl sighed before continuing exasperatedly, "That demon's spawn was about to snap me in half when Sensei and you arrived. Sensei caught its attention and it dropped me, then you stopped it from coming back for me. I'm alive because of the two of you. I already thanked Sensei, so it was your turn. That's all."

Despite her shock, Sakura found her voice before the girl was able to get all the way to the door, "Gaara's not a demon's pawn or whatever it was you said."

Continuing to the door, the girl growled, "This is why I hate outsiders; they never understand what's going on. They're so useless." As she opened the door, the girl paused, perhaps thinking about what she just said, and then added before she shut the door behind her, "Maybe it's because your dad's from Suna, but at least _you_ seem to have a use. I can sleep better knowing there's someone who can stop that _thing_ from coming to finish me off in the middle of the night."

Sakura's exclamation about calling Gaara a 'thing' was met by a closed door.

* * *

Sorry for the wait, my computer wasn't letting me post new chapters and school was busy. At least this chapter is a bit longer than usual. I'll try to have the next chapter up around the 10th of April, but once again everything depends on school and work. Either this next chapter or the chapter after it will contain things that people who have read A Continuous Circle will recognize, so look forward to that.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to play with Sakura, but if Gaara finds out about any flamers…well, you know what happened to Hayato. Now, onto the pretty list!

Thanks to: psalmofsummer, SB01, I'm to lazy to login, SnowWolfSpirit, aGreatPenName, byinj, & Cindy Medeiros for reviewing!


	7. Friends and Ribbons

Disclaimer: No, no...just no.

Chapter 7: Friends and Ribbons

Sakura set aside the book Auntie Youko had brought her when a knock sounded at her door. It opened to reveal Youko, "Sakura, your friends are here." She then opened the door wider, reveling Temari and Kankuro. "You may play for a while, but remember, Sakura has to stay in bed." Everyone chimed in agreement, and then Kankuro ran into the room while Temari followed at a slower gait. "Have fun," stated Youko before she slipped back out of the room.

Once the door was closed Kankuro pulled a wooden puppet out of his pocket. His sister groaned, "Not again!" The six-year-old replied by sticking his tongue out, "It's not going to work." Kankuro ignored her, turning back to Sakura he proceeded to make the puppet walk across the bed to her. He then pulled out another puppet and had the two interact. It was all going well until the two puppet's strings became entangled, forcing the puppet show to come to an abrupt end. Temari smirked, "I told you."

Before the irate boy could hit his sister with the puppets, Sakura swiftly said, "Thanks, Kankuro, I enjoyed it!" The distraction worked.

Both siblings turned towards Sakura and asked, "You did?" Kankuro sounded happy, Temari confused. Both of them glared at each other before returning their gaze to Sakura.

Sakura's pink head bobbed up and down, "Yeah, I know you worked hard on it, and it was fun to watch. Maybe once you get better at it you can show me again." Kankuro leapt for joy, happy to for once have someone compliment his skills.

While her brother was busy doing a happy dance, Temari whispered, "How could you have liked it? It was boring!"

Smiling, Sakura answered just as quietly, "Not as boring as being alone." Temari nodded with understanding.

"Hey!" called out Kankuro as his dance ended and he noticed the two of them huddled together, "What are you two whispering about?"

Temari shrugged, then stated flatly, "About how Sakura was bored before we came." Picking up the book Youko had brought, she asked Sakura, "What's this about? Any good?" Behind her, Kankuro shuddered and pretended to gag. He hated books. Both girls ignored him.

"It's ok," Stated Sakura as she opened up the book to show Temari, "It's about something called the 'immune system' that keeps the body safe from sickness, but there are too many pictures and it doesn't explain things very well. I'm going to ask Auntie Youko more about it later." Pausing, Sakura looked at the seven-year-old with expecting eyes, "Unless you know something more about it?"

Temari shook her head, "Nope, I only ever heard of it, never knew what it was."

Kankuro, not wanting to talk anymore about something from a book, jumped in, changing the conversation, "Guess what, Sakura! Soon desert tribesmen are going to be visiting. Father said that he'd get someone to look after us while they're here. I don't really understand why, but that means that I'll have more people to practice with my puppets on."

Temari smacked Kankuro's head with the palm of her hand lightly, "You idiot. Father said he'd have ninja watching us because some of the tribesmen may be bad people who would hurt us to get at father. Why don't you ever listen?" Once more Kankuro raised his tangled puppets as if to hit his sister with them, but this time Temari swung around, grabbing his wrist, "If you try to hit me with them one more time, I swear they'll end up in more pieces than the last one did!" Sakura vaguely remembered Gaara having told her about this.

Kankuro blanched, "You wouldn't!" Temari's eyes narrowed, as if saying silently 'just try me'. Pulling out of the blonde girls grasp, he spat, "If you do, I'll tell father and maybe he'll make you take ballet next!"

Once again Sakura broke up the argument by wading right into it, "Is that why you're taking dance classes? Because you broke Kankuro's puppet?"

Kankuro nodded jubilantly while Temari rolled her eyes, "Yeah, it's punishment for—wait! How did you know about that? I hadn't told you yet?"

Before Sakura could answer, Kankuro burst out laughing, "Who's the idiot now, Temari! Uncle Yashamaru works here! He must have told her!"

Another fight might have broken out if Sakura hadn't butted in, "But it wasn't Yashamaru."

Kankuro stopped mid laugh, Temari mid smack and both children turned to her, "Then who—" looking back at each other they yelled in sync, "quit copying me! You're the one who's—stop it!"

Sakura couldn't help but start laughing at their antics. When they returned to looking at her, she gasped, "It wasn't Yashamaru, it was Gaara." Normally in this kind of situation Temari would have said something about being right to Kankuro and he would have made some quip in return, but instead her statement was met with silence. Wiping a tear of laughter from her eye, Sakura asked worriedly, "What's wrong? It shouldn't be that surprising that Gaara told me."

Temari shook her head, but it was Kankuro who finally answered softly, "We've hardly seen Gaara at all since—since…well…you know." Sakura did know, and she only just realized that Gaara hadn't mentioned anything during his visit about what he had done since she'd been hospitalized. "We don't know where he's been, but he's hardly ever home."

Sakura didn't know what to say, so silence filled the room until eventually Temari asked carefully, "When did you see him?"

Not understanding why Temari seemed so cautious, Sakura answered simply, "He visited me last night and we talked. I think he left after I fell asleep." Sakura couldn't tell what emotion was running in Temari's eyes, but thinking that she was probably worried for her brother, she added, "Once Gaara knew I was fine and wasn't angry with him, he acted like he always does, so don't worry. I'm sure he'll come back home soon."

An awkward silence returned to the room and continued until a rap sounded at the door. "Temari," called Yashamaru through the closed door, "you have five more minutes before you need to leave for dance class." Temari made a face and the tension in the room was broken.

"Yeah, yeah," called the pigtailed girl to her uncle, "I'll be out in a few minutes." As they heard Yashamaru's footsteps disappearing down the hall Temari sighed, "Hate dance class—can't wait 'til it's over!"

"How much longer do you have to go to them?" Sakura asked curiously.

Temari shrugged, "Father expects me to keep taking them, but…" the dangerous smirk on the girl's face told Sakura all she needed to know. She wasn't surprised when Temari finished with, "I give it a week, two if the instructor pawns me off to someone else before giving up on me."

Sakura smiled and shook her head, "I guess it was supposed to be punishment, so it's ok to quit so long as you learned your lesson."

"Oh, I learned my lesson alright, not to break Kankuro's dolls—"

"They're not dolls! But I'm glad you know not to break my puppets again!" Feeling satisfied, Kankuro turned his attention to untangling the two puppets in his hand.

Rolling her eyes, Temari whispered to Sakura, "I wasn't finished. I learned not to break Kankuro's dolls when adults are watching." Grabbing the children's book from the bed, Temari asked in her normal voice, "You done with this?" Sakura nodded, "I'll give it back to your aunt for you." As she sauntered towards the door, Temari saluted the two she was leaving behind, "Wish me luck."

* * *

The week flew by quickly, and Sakura fell into a routine. She would wake up and talk to her mommy and Auntie Youko, and then she would read whatever the two of them brought for her. After lunch Temari and Kankuro would visit and after they left Yashamaru would give her a checkup and her mother would hand her the homework she had missed that day in school. Sakura would then get the homework done faster than she ever got it done in class (the lack of distractions in her hospital room proved useful on that account). Then she would waste time away until she could pretend to go to bed. Once in bed she would force herself to stay awake until Gaara visited, though she always fell asleep before he left.

After Temari and Kankuro's first visit, Sakura had urged Gaara to go see his family. She didn't know if he had listened though until Temari told her the next day that he had returned that morning. It filled her heart with happiness to know that her friends were reunited. It never occurred to her to wonder, though, why Gaara kept visiting at night and his siblings during the day. The fact that they were coming separately didn't even come to mind until, near the end of the week, Temari and Kankuro quit coming to visit.

After a few days of them not showing up, Sakura couldn't take the suspense anymore and she asked Gaara about their disappearance. It was then that she found out that they had finally received their 'ninja babysitters' because the desert tribesmen had arrived, and that these ninja stayed with the three of them all day. When she asked why this meant they couldn't come, he simple replied that the Kazekage had told them not to visit the hospital. Gaara didn't explain why they were told that, just that they were.

Because of this, Sakura was happier than ever the afternoon she was told that she was healthy enough to leave the hospital. Her arm was still in a cast, but she could now walk without limping, which meant, as far as she was concerned, that she was finally healthy enough to go out and play with her friends.

Sakura left the hospital at a quick walk. She knew exactly where her three friends would be this time of the day. When she arrived at the park, one leg sore and out of breath, Sakura found that she had been right. Temari and Kankuro were on the swings and Gaara sat alone in the sandbox. Gaara saw her first. As he stood up, dusting sand off his clothes, Temari caught on to the situation. Unlike her brother, Temari wasted no time jumping from the swing and running to meet Sakura. She reached Sakura moments before Gaara joined her. Kankuro took longer to make it, because he, unlike his sister, had yet to learn how to get off a moving swing.

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin when a calm voice asked from behind her, "And who's this?" Turning quickly, Sakura saw through the pink locks falling in front of her eyes that there were three teens standing behind her. The eldest, a blonde boy, about sixteen, with half his face covered by cloth and a forehead protector over one eye was the one who had spoken. Behind him stood a black haired boy, maybe thirteen, and a girl around twelve with hair as red as Gaara's, both of whom also wore forehead protectors. All three of them were ninja, but not of Suna. Sakura recognized the leaf symbol etched in the metal as that of Konoha.

"Don't scare her, Kouta," said the red haired girl, waving a finger at the blonde boy. Stepping past Kouta, she smiled and stated, "My name's Kumiko Shoi, this silly head is Kouta Haru and Mr. Silent back there is Sai Uchiha." Bending down to Sakura's level, she continued, "We've been assigned to babysit these three. I can guess that you must be their friend, so what's your name?"

Sakura stepped back at the overly friendly nature of the red haired stranger. She had become accustom to talking to people she knew, but this stranger was too close and too loud for comfort. She had been in the hospital so long she had forgotten how hard it was for her to deal with new people. Without much thought, Sakura grabbed Gaara's arm and hid behind him before squeaking, "S-Sakura"

"That's a cute name. How old are you, Sakura?"

Sakura tried to answer, she really did, but her legs were shaking and her voice wouldn't come out. Thankfully Temari pushed herself between the redheads, arms on hips as she responded, "She's five, now leave her alone. She just got out of the hospital." Without waiting to see how the ninja took such a brazen order, Temari turned to Gaara and thus also Sakura. "Come on, let's sit in the shade. Sakura looks tired."

As Temari shepherded Sakura and her siblings to a nearby tree, Sakura heard the girl, Kumiko, whisper, most likely to Kouta, "I told you he was bound to have a friend. Now, pay up."

When Sakura was finally able to plop down under a tree she felt so relieved. A part of it was because her leg was tired and sore from the long walk here, but a larger part of it was that her friends surrounded her, blocking out sight of the strangers. "Don't mind Kumiko," stated Kankuro as he settled in beside her, "she's really nice. She just talks too much."

Temari, for once agreeing with her brother, added, "And she can't keep her nose out of other people's business."

Still well aware of the presence of the three ninja, Sakura was only able to ask in a tiny voice, "What do you mean?"

Gaara answered just as quietly as Sakura had asked, "Dance class."

At the same time, Temari growled, "She wants to help me with dance so that I do well at the next recital! When I said no, she practically talked my ears off about how she could help me!"

Sakura giggled as Kankuro added, "Don't forget how she put ribbons in your hair."

Temari shuddered, "Thanks for reminding me. I hate ribbons. They look awful on me." Glancing at Sakura, Temari added as if it had only just occurred to her, "Hey, Sakura, you're hair's getting longer…you want a ribbon—or four? They'd look good on you." When Sakura started quivering from withheld laughter, Temari quickly added, "If you could keep the hair out of your eyes, maybe people wouldn't call you mop head."

The laughter died in Sakura's throat. "Then they'd just make fun of my forehead and call me billboard brow again." Sakura could feel the tears welling in her eyes. The thing that kept them from falling was Gaara's hand in hers, gently squeezing as if to remind her that he was there for her. The other thing that kept her tears from falling was Temari's quick retort.

"Don't you dare start crying, that's exactly what the bullies want you to do." Sakura's eyes grew big as Temari pointed a finger at her. "You need to show them that you aren't afraid of them. I know for you that that's not easy, but not hiding your face is a good place to start!" Thrusting her hand quickly into a pocket, Temari pulled out a fistful of red ribbons, "So take the ribbons."

When Sakura just stared at the ribbons, Temari opened her fist, letting all but one fall to Sakura's lap. Leaning forward, Temari pushed back Sakura's bangs and wrapped the ribbon firmly around her head before the girl even knew what was happening. "There, now everyone can see your pretty face."

In the background, Sakura could hear Kankuro laughing his guts out, "She just want to get rid of them—If father decided he liked her with ribbons—She'd have to wear them—every day—I can just picture it no—ooooow!" Tears came to Kankuro's eyes as his hand flew to his red cheek. Temari loomed over him on her knees.

Holding her fist up to her brown haired brother's face, the angry blonde girl smirked, "Another word and you might lose a tooth."

Releasing Gaara's hand, Sakura swung herself forward, grabbing Temari's hand in an attempt to stop her from carrying out her threat. As she shook her head vigorously from side to side, flinging tears as she did so, Sakura realized that she wasn't the only one holding back Temari's fist. "That is enough." A hand was gently wrapped around Temari's wrist, restraining it without effort. Sakura's green eyes slowly moved upward to the face of the black haired boy. Sakura couldn't recall his first name, but she remembered the name Uchiha. As far as she knew, she'd never met any Uchihas back in Konoha but she recognized the name.

Sakura retreated to Gaara's side once more as the red haired Kumiko moved to Kankuro's side and the blonde Kouta started chastising Temari, only to be cut off by the black haired Uchiha, "I'll handle this. See to Kankuro." Once Kouta's back was turned, the Uchiha stated calmly, "You shouldn't have hit your brother."

Temari's dark blue-green eyes glared up unafraid as she answered, "He deserved it!"

Without any hint of emotion, the boy replied, "It doesn't matter. You shouldn't have done that." When Temari continued to glare at him, he added calmly, "Or did you want to make your friend cry." This time Temari's eyes widened and she broke eye contact with the Uchiha to search out Sakura's face. "You scared her."

What Temari saw made her go white. Sakura, tears streaming down her cheeks, was pressing her face into Gaara's arm and shaking. However, although this sight made Temari feel bad for her, it was Gaara who really made Temari know she'd gone too far. Gaara, eyes full of anger, was glaring at her. Temari knew that if she didn't calm Sakura and thus Gaara down, Gaara's sand might start moving. She had been entrusted by her father to keep Shukaku's existence secret from the Konoha ninja, and here she was, having almost exposed it.

Temari was quick to react, "I'm sorry."

Truthfully, Temari was apologizing to Sakura for frightening her, but it was Kankuro who replied, "I forgive you," When her brother opened his mouth to say something else that would probably irk her, Temari pulled her wrist out of the Uchiha's grasp and turned her back on Kankuro to look at Sakura.

"Geez, I didn't mean to scare you, Sakura." When the pink haired girl pulled slightly away from Gaara to give her watery a smile, Temari knew she was in the clear. Stepping forward she carefully maneuvered so as not to brush against her youngest brother while simultaneously wiping Tears from Sakura's face. "But really, you don't need to cry over every little thing. Didn't we just talk about this?"

Sakura shook her head, answering quietly, "You said not to cry around bullies. You're not a bully."

Before Temari could ruefully agree, Kankuro shouted over her shoulder, "Yes she is!" Temari twitched.

"No, you idiot, I'm your sister. There's a difference."

* * *

What a light note to end on! Not too much of a cliffhanger, but anyone who has read A Continuous Circle knows something's going to happen, perhaps even what, but no one knows how things will be resolved. Just to clear up any question people (who have read ACC) might have, this Kumiko Shoi is the real one, I can't say anything about the other two, though.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to one of Temari's ribbons (really, she wants to get rid of them), but anyone who flames will feel her ribbon induced wrath! Now, with that warning over with, let's move on to the_ Pretty List_!

Thanks to: SB01 (well, I will say I love foreshadowing, and thank you for your complement), QuietShadowz, Cindy Medeiros, & Amara-nii chan (I take it that you were talking about Kisame) for reviewing!


	8. Ambush

Disclaimer: Sorry for the long wait, but Finals were nearing and there was much kicking and butts involved…it's yet to be seen whose but was kicked harder, though, mine or the Finals.

Chapter 8: Ambush

The next day Sakura went to school for the first time since her hospitalization and she found that something had changed. When she first entered her classroom, the air was tense and almost no one would meet her eyes, including the teachers. As the day wore on, she noticed that that wasn't all. Many of her classmates who had bullied her before were now avoiding her at all costs. Only the loud-mouthed Rei, a name-caller whom Sakura had long since categorized as being all bark and no bite, still continued to pick on her.

It was during recess that how different her school environment now was became truly apparent. Recess was normally a time for Sakura to hide in the shade of the school building, drawing in the dirt with a stick while staying out of sight of the children playing nearby. But today Sakura hadn't even found a good drawing stick before she was ambushed by Rei.

"Oi, billboard brow!" Sakura tried not to flinch at the familiar name. When she didn't respond but instead continued searching for a stick, the sand-haired boy yelled, "Are you deft, Pinky, I'm talking to you!" Sakura ignored him. She knew from past experience that if she let him know she was listening, he would keep calling her names and making fun of her. If she left him alone, he would likely grow bored and leave, allowing her to spend the rest of her recess alone in peace.

But he didn't. Instead, when Sakura sidestepped him again, having finally found a good stick, the boy screamed, "You stupid head!" That was all the warning Sakura got before she felt two hands pushing her. As Sakura hit the ground, she heard a snap, the sound of scuffling feet and a clap. Pain was blossoming in the hand that had a cast since Sakura had bumped it when she fell, but she ignored the pain, more interested in what was going on around her.

"You idiot!" Two boys Sakura recognized from the class next door were restraining Rei, whose cheek looked red, as if it had just been slapped. One of the boys continued in a harsh whisper, "Do you want him to kill you like he did Haya—?" The speaker's brown eyes looked over directly into Sakura's green ones and he paled. Without finishing his sentence, he and the other boy dragged Rei away.

Sakura sat in the dirt, dumbfounded. She didn't understand why the boys had run away, though she could guess from what they had been saying that it had something to do with Gaara. Why would they think Gaara, or more precisely his sand, would kill them for simply pushing her when they had done more than that before now?

Looking down at her hands, Sakura noticed for the first time that her much sought after stick had broken when she fell—that had been the snapping noise she heard. Aside from a few scratches and one splinter, the stick didn't seem to have done much damage. As Sakura pulled out the splinter, tears welling in her eyes, a red drop fell onto her cast, startling her. Blinking away tears, Sakura looked at the red drop, not understanding what was going on until another drop slid down her face and fell to the ground. It was blood.

Reaching up with her good hand, Sakura felt a gash on her forehead, her bangs matting with blood. As she removed her hand she felt the blood trickle down the side of her face once more. The gash wasn't that big, but it was bleeding a lot and it frightened her. This, more so than the pain, was what tipped Sakura's emotional boat. Sakura cried. She remained crying until recess ended and one of the teachers found her and sent her to the nurse's office. The rest of the day everyone avoided her, stealing poorly concealed glances at her bandaged head and whispering to each other.

* * *

As soon as school got out, Sakura ran to the park. She hated the looks people had been giving her all day and she just wanted to spend what was left of her day with Gaara. He was waiting for her near the sandbox, but he wasn't the only red-head there, Kumiko was sitting nearby as well. Aside from those two, the park was empty. Sakura slowed down as Kumiko called out, "If it isn't your little girlfriend!" The ninja's eyes widened as she stood up and walked towards Sakura, "What happened to your head?"

Sakura paled; the sand behind Kumiko was moving and Gaara was staring at Sakura—at her bandaged head—with fists clenched. Unintentionally Sakura remembered the comment made earlier that day about Rei being killed by Gaara for hurting her. She knew Gaara would never do that, but the sand—a glance around Kumiko confirmed that it was still shifting restlessly—the sand was moving one way or the other, and Temari had told her before she left yesterday that they were to keep it a secret from their Konoha ninja-babysitters. She didn't explain why, but that didn't matter. By now Sakura had a good idea as to how most people reacted to Gaara's sand and she didn't want his new babysitter to act like that.

Smiling as brightly as she could, Sakura explained, "It was an accident! I fell during recess and the stick I was holding broke, and," Sakura pointed to her forehead with relief as the sand behind Kumiko quit moving, "a part of it hit my head." It was the truth too, it was just missing an explanation for why she fell. Not wanting the reason to be asked, Sakura quickly added, "It kept bleeding and bleeding. It was scary, but the nurse said it was normal. I don't understand how, though."

Gaara hurried over from the sandbox as Kumiko spoke to Sakura, "It's because people's heads bleed really easily. I think it has something to do with the heart having to pump the blood up to the brain against gravity, but, well, if you want to know the details you'd have to ask my da—I mean, my Sensei." Sakura tilted her head in confusion, but it was Gaara who answered her unasked question.

"Her father is also her Sensei."

As Sakura watched, Kumiko looked at Gaara as if he had surprised her by speaking. Perhaps he had. Perhaps he was as quiet around Kumiko as he had been when he and Sakura had first met. "Ah, yes," stumbled Kumiko, "He's right. My dad is teaching me about being a ninja." After a pause, she added, "Though, he's more of a medic than a ninja. The reason our team was sent here instead of someone else was so he could talk with the medics here about desert remedies."

Sakura nodded then turned to Gaara, who was tugging on her good arm, "Let's play." As he said this, the pink haired outcast felt her sad heart warm. She was glad to have a friend like Gaara. With him and his siblings, she quit feeling like the outcast all her schoolmates called her.

As a large smile took over Sakura's face, she laughed, "Yeah!" Tapping his arm, she started running away, calling over her shoulder as she did so, "You're It!" Gaara's shock didn't last long, and soon he was running after her, arms outreached, a smile on his face. Gaara was catching up quickly and there was only one way Sakura could think of to not get caught. Dashing over to the slide, Sakura ran around it, keeping it between her and Gaara's outstretched hands.

They circled back and forth, each trying to be faster than the other, but neither gaining ground as each time they tried to outmaneuver each other it didn't work. This continued until Sakura decided to break away from the slide at the same moment Gaara decided to change directions and head her off. The two collided, falling in a heap on the ground. Before Kumiko could start worrying, though, Sakura burst out laughing, followed cautiously by Gaara as the two righted themselves.

"I'm dizzy!" cried Sakura joyously as she held onto Gaara with her good hand. Gaara nodded as he stood up, pulling Sakura to her feet as he did so. "Thanks," Sakura said as she stumbled up, "Guess this means I'm It." Gaara nodded again, but he didn't let go of her until he was certain that she was steady on her feet. When he was sure she wouldn't fall without him he ran away, in the direction opposite the slide. Sakura followed suit and their game of tag continued.

Sakura had almost caught Gaara when she tripped over a rock and almost fell. She would have fallen if Gaara hadn't been paying attention to his pursuer. However he _had_ been paying attention and so he was able to turn around and catch her before she hit the ground. As Sakura landed in his arms, something whizzed by them, striking the ground where Gaara would have been had he continued running forward. Sakura gasped in fright and moved closer to Gaara when her eyes took in the five kunai embedded in the ground beside them. A moment later Kumiko had thrown herself between them and the source of the kunai: a man who was just now stepping out of the shadows.

The man laughed and then said seriously, "You're pretty fast, little girl, for a Gennin. But you had better hand over the monster boy or else we'll have to mar you pretty face." Before Kumiko could respond to their attackers taunt, Sakura screamed.

"Gaara's not a monster!" She was terrified, but she couldn't just stand there and let this man badmouth her best friend. Sakura held onto Gaara tighter as she felt sand shifting under her feet. That was another thing she couldn't let happen. She couldn't let Gaara's sand make itself known. The man smirked in answer, but before he could say anything, Kumiko stepped in, holding a kunai defensively.

"I w-won't let you h-have him!" It wasn't just Kumiko's voice that was trembling, though. Even Sakura could see that she was shaking. However, she didn't so much as budge when the man took a step forward.

"Now, now, little girl," he said as if speaking to someone Sakura's age rather than Kumiko's. "Think before you speak. You may be fast, I expected nothing less from Noya Shoi's daughter, but you are outclassed, child. Do you really want to die for the sake of that monster?"

Sakura almost yelled again, but the sand was starting to move, so instead she whispered calming words to Gaara as Kumiko stuttered in her place, "S-stop c-calling him a m-monster."

The man gave a sickening smile. "Stop calling him a monster? My dear girl, he _is _a monster!" Kumiko must have looked confused, because the man added, "Of course you don't know! The Kazekage probably didn't want to tell you!" From behind the man Sakura thought she saw a small flash of light, but no one else seemed to have seen it as the man continued, "Little girl, that so called 'boy' is nothing but the vessel for the d—"

"Oh, for goodness sake," an annoyed voice interrupted the man, who violently turned around, pulling out a kunai as he caught sight of the cloak wearing figure behind him. Ignoring him, the hooded figure, a woman by the sound of her voice, continued, "Why is it that even when there's a world of difference, things are practically the same?"

The man smirked, apparently having gotten over his surprise, "I don't know who you are," he stated, his voice only slightly less slick then it had been before this figure had appeared, "but it won't matter for long." With that, he launched himself forward, Kunai first, but the woman was faster. She moved aside mere moments before the blade passed by her. Sakura couldn't follow what happened next, it all happened too quickly, but the man's hands flew to his throat as if something were stuck there as the shrouded woman dodged another barrage of kunai, this time sent by someone other than the man. As she continued dodging attacks, the man from earlier fell to the ground and lay still.

Sakura clung tighter to Gaara as more people appeared just as the man on the ground had before them. As a shadow fell over them, Sakura started, only to calm down when she realized that it wasn't one of the bad guys but just Kumiko who had taken a step back, closer to them. Sakura didn't understand what exactly was going on, but when she looked past the shaking Kumiko and saw the unknown woman dance around her attackers unscathed, Sakura cheered. Bad idea.

Four of the attackers turned their eyes in her direction. Having been reminded of their reason for being there in the first place, one of the four sent shuriken flying at them while the others ran closer. Kumiko threw her kunai at the shuriken with one hand while her other hand pulled out another kunai from a pack on her leg. The ring of metal hitting metal was the only sign that the kunai had hits its target, though, because another shuriken was flying their way, having been hidden in the shadow of the first.

Sakura saw the terrified look on Kumiko's face as she rushed to throw her next kunai. This time no ring filled the air. The clumsily thrown kunai had missed its target, and even Sakura could tell that there was no more time for Kumiko to throw another because just then another attacker came at her from the side. Sakura screamed, frozen in place as the shuriken came nearer and nearer. The sand moved under her feet, but before it could form anything more than a small mound it stopped, then sank back to the ground. Sakura's eyes grew wide as she saw why. The Shuriken had stopped in midair.

Sakura's head swiveled around as she heard a thump, and saw Kumiko standing over the man who had just attacked her, the man who was now lying on the ground. Looking beyond Kumiko, Sakura saw that he wasn't the only one not moving. All of the attackers were frozen in place. Only the cloaked woman remained mobile as she walked around from one stationary person to another, slowly making her way to them. Before she reached them, Kumiko said loudly, "Stop! D-don't come any closer!"

Surprisingly the woman did as she was told, holding up her hands as if to say she wasn't dangerous. "Very well, I'll stop here. But you needn't worry; I'm not going to attack."

Kumiko looked the hooded woman over before asking, "Who are you?" She sounded more secure now that the woman seemed to be complying. "And whose side are you on?"

The woman chuckled, "Side? I can't really say I'm on any side in particular, but I wasn't about to let this bunch kill you three. As to who I am, well…you can call me Kirsche,"

"Well, Kirsche," began Kumiko, "I'm thankful for your help, but what are you doing here…" looking at the people frozen around them, she added, "and perhaps more importantly, what have you done? They're not dead, or at least the guy who was attacking me isn't." Sakura glanced at the man lying near Kumiko's feet and saw that his chest was moving up and down.

"No, they're not dead," stated the cloaked woman, "I checked. I was a bit worried since I had to rush at the end there to save you, but they appear to be fine. Some are unconscious, though—they seem to have gotten the wind knocked out of them. By the way, you didn't need to kick that guy; he was already under my Jutsu, so he couldn't have hurt you."

"What kind of Jutsu does this, and this?" Kumiko shouted, pointing first at the man at her feet and then at the shuriken still floating in mid air. "How could you have done this? I never even saw you make any hand signs!"

"Just because you didn't notice the signs doesn't mean it didn't happen." Sakura tilted her head to the side as the woman continued explaining, her mind still contemplating the odd wording of the woman's first explanation "As to how it happened, well…you could say it's a family Jutsu. The best explanation I can give is that I made it so that they couldn't move anywhere they weren't already…though I made an exception for that one since I thought you might hit him. I didn't finish with him until he was already on the ground. Thought I'd save you both some pain."

Sakura spoke before Kumiko could respond, "The dancing." Everyone turned to look at her, confused. Leaning closer to Gaara, she answered shyly, "It looked like dancing…but…could that have been the signs?"

Sakura could hear the smile in the woman's voice when she responded, taking a step forward, "You would be the one to notice, Sakura."

"Stay back!" cried Kumiko, throwing a kunai. Instead of stopping it midair like the shuriken, the woman instead reached out and snatched the kunai from the air as if it were a toy rather than a weapon. Shaking, Kumiko shouted, "I-I don't know how you know Sakura, but I w-won't let you do anything to her…or Gaara!"

The cloaked figure laughed, "You make it sound as if I plan to hurt them." Reaching up slowly, the woman drew back the hood of her cloak, "The name is Kirsche Hoshi," Sakura wasn't the only one to gasp when she saw hair as pink as her own fall down the shoulders of the woman, "and as I'm sure you can see, Sakura and I are of the same blood." The woman, Kirsche, smiled, her blue eyes shining.

As Kirsche continued speaking, Sakura noted that her pupils were just pinpricks floating in the blues of her eyes, "I came to meet Sakura, not hurt her." Flipping the kunai in her hand casually Kirsche added, "But if you still don't trust me, you may take the children and get your father. I'll stay here with these guys until you return with your back up. Besides, these men need to be taken in and questioned anyhow."

Without taking her eyes off of Kirsche, Kumiko ushered them away. Sakura knew, because she couldn't tear her eyes away from the pink hair that so resembled her own either. She kept throwing glances behind her even after they passed out of sight. After the third such glance-back, Gaara whispered, "Do you know her?" Sakura shook her head and whispered back.

"No…but I feel like I should."

* * *

Once again, I'm sorry for the wait on this chapter. I hope you liked it, though. Anyone who's read A Continuous Circle will recognize a portion of this, though things obviously went differently than ACC also.

I'll try to update in two weeks, around May 28th, but I can't promise anything for sure.

All my lovely reviewers deserve a pumpkin muffin, but flamers unnerve the cook, so they don't get any. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: shadow-binder, wolfxanime, K. Higurashi, Melyss, BadFiction (thanks), Zedax, & Little Miss Sugar Less  for reviewing!


	9. Kirsche

Disclaimer: I'm sorry for the long wait, lots of things have been in my way of writing. But you needn't worry, for the next chapter of my FANFICTION is here! Enjoy.

Chapter 9: Kirsche

Both Sakura and Gaara stared out from behind Yashamaru as Kumiko's father walked towards the pink haired woman. She was sitting on a rock near the first man who had fallen to her Jutsu. Smiling, Kirsche waved at Kumiko's brown haired father, "It's good to see you," for a moment, though, Sakura thought she heard a sad note in her voice as she continued, "I don't believe you know me." However, as Kirsche slipped off the rock and gave a very proper bow, the smile was still on her face, so Sakura figured she must be imagining things. "You may call me Kirsche. As I'm sure you can ascertain, I am of the Hoshi clan."

Kumiko's father nodded, "That I can, though I am surprised to see a Hoshi here. I was under the impression that the Hoshi clan left Konoha long ago because they didn't want to be involved in the affairs of ninja."

"You are right," stated Kirsche happily, "I didn't come here to involve myself with ninja."

"Really now?" Asked Kumiko's father with a chuckle as he looked around at all of the men still frozen in place. "I find that hard to believe."

"I didn't come for ninja," Kirsche shrugged, "it just so happens that these particular ninja were in the process of hurting what I did come for, so I acted to stop them." Sakura felt sand start to shift under her feet as both Yashamaru and Kumiko's father tensed. Perhaps noticing this, Kirsche added, "They are all still alive, though."

It was Yashamaru who broke the apprehensive silence, "Lady Chiyo once told me about the Hoshi. If I remember correctly, they are pink haired, blue eyed pacifists and, from her statements, they have rather annoying personalities. Although this depiction fits you, it does not fit Sakura." He didn't add 'especially the personality portion', though he wanted to. "She may have pink hair, but her eyes are green. Yet, according to Kumiko, you claim to be related to her."

Despite Yashamaru's distrusting tone, Kirsche was still smiling brightly, "I believe the words I used were 'of the same blood'." Yashamaru began to speak again, but was quickly interrupted by the still beaming blue eyed woman, "Before you say it's not possible, let me explain how it is. Sakura's mother was of the Hoshi clan and, at the time, her father was a citizen of Konoha. Partially in order to fulfill a prophesy, her mother chose to have Sakura, despite knowing that her child would be raised outside of the Hoshi clan." Pausing, she added to Yashamaru, "It is because of her mixed heritage that her eyes are not blue," before continuing what she had been saying. "Later on her father left Konoha. And seeing how she is standing right behind you with her friend, I'm sure you can guess as to how she ended up here in Suna."

Unbeknownst to Sakura, Yashamaru was matching up what Kirsche had said to what Shin and his wife had said about Sakura while she was in the hospital. Whether he liked it or not, this woman's stories were matching up with their tale of Sakura having a surrogate mother since Shin's wife couldn't have children. However, this could cause some issues. This Hoshi said she had come for Sakura, but he couldn't allow her to take the girl away if that was what she planed. It wasn't just for Shin's sake either. It was for all of Suna. He didn't even want to think of what might happen if Sakura was taken away from Gaara.

As if reading his thoughts, or at least some of them, Kumiko's father asked, "So, are you here to take the girl back to her maternal family? I've heard that the Hoshi prefer to keep to their own, but this seems like that means you'd be taking her away from her paternal family." Sakura didn't understand what kinds of family 'maternal' or 'paternal' were or how she could be taken from one or the other since she only had one family, but ever since Kirsche had spoken earlier, her mind had been abuzz with thoughts. Before she lost her courage, Sakura forced herself to step out from behind Yashamaru.

"Are—are you my mother?" When she noticed everyone's shocked expressions, including Kirsche's, Sakura lost her courage and scampered back to Gaara's side, her face flushed with embarrassment. Gaara hugged her tightly, as if to protect her. He alone hadn't been surprised when Sakura asked her question, because he was wondering it as well, though perhaps for a different reason. He didn't want this woman to be Sakura's mother, because if she was, she could take Sakura away from Suna…and he didn't want to lose his only friend.

For the first time, Kirsche stumbled on her words as she tried to regain her composure, "I…I'm…Oh, for goodness's sake. I should have seen this one coming." Tugging on a lock of pink hair, Kirsche sighed, "No, I'm not your mother, though I am related to her. Your mother's name was Junko, and, as I know your parents have told you, she died giving birth to you." It's true Sakura had been told that, but she had also been told that her father was her mommy's brother even though now her mommy was saying her daddy was her father. She didn't know what to believe.

Sakura was trying to work up the courage to point this out when Yashamaru interrupted her stuttered 'buts', "Sakura, she can't be much more than eighteen or nineteen; she's too young to be your mother." Turning back to Kirsche, he added, "Now, please answer Noya's question. What do you want Sakura for?"

The smile from earlier returned, "I'm not taking her back to the Hoshi if that's what you're worried about. That's not where her destiny lies. By this point I think you'd agree that she's much better off here then there anyhow." Sakura noticed that both men relaxed at this, which made her relax a bit in Gaara's arms as well, even though she couldn't completely follow the conversation. However, Sakura _didn't_ notice that only now was Gaara's sand completely settling to the ground. She was too preoccupied with the conversation to notice his concern for her.

Kumiko's father, Noya as Yashamaru had called him, asked calmly, "Then what are you here for, Miss Kirsche?"

"As I've already said, I'm here for Sakura. Not to take her out of Suna, but for her, herself. She is the daughter of the Hoshi, but she lives outside of the clan. As such, she has lacked guidance up 'til now. That is why I'm here." Pausing, her blue eyes looked around at all of the men still frozen in place, "Now that I've explained that, would you mind going around and restraining these guys so that I can release my Jutsu?"

* * *

Yashamaru glared at Kirsche over Sakura and Gaara's heads. He didn't trust the woman, though he couldn't really explain why. There was no question any more to him whether they were related or not, their similarities were too telling. Up close, he could tell that even putting hair color aside, both Sakura and Kirsche looked a lot alike, enough, perhaps, to even be sisters, but still he couldn't shake the feeling that Kirsche's presence could only cause trouble. Of course, he had no proof. All he could do was keep an eye on her and the children.

Before Yashamaru could state his views, Kirsche turned her head to the side, "Sounds like more children are on their way." He could hear it, and he knew who it was too. After the situation had been assessed and Noya had decided it was safe for the children to continue playing in the park, he had sent his daughter to get Temari, Kankuro, and their babysitters. This would be them.

When Kankuro topped the hill and saw Sakura and Gaara, he sped up, crying out, "You'll never guess what happened!"

He was quickly followed by Temari, who was shouting just as loudly, "Say anything and you're dead!"

Temari was followed closely by Kumiko, Kouta and the Uchiha. It was Kumiko who yelled after Temari, "What did I say about trying to kill your brother!" Temari ignored the quip, though, as she raced down the hill.

Kankuro skid to a halt in front of Sakura, immediately trying to speak despite gasping to regain his breath, "We were—at the market—and—we ran into—" Temari didn't waste time skidding to a halt, she just barreled right into Kankuro, shouting at him to shut his mouth. A full on fight might have broken out if at that moment Kankuro hadn't caught sight of Kirsche, "Who's that?"

All heads turned towards the larger, blue eyed version of Sakura. Kirsche wiggled her fingers at them in greeting, "Hello, you may call me Kirsche. I came to visit Sakura." Her tiny pupils flowed from face to face, gauging the newcomers' reaction to her. Kankuro was staring, the look in his eye informing anyone who looked that he was coming to a conclusion similar to Sakura's previous one about who she was. Temari was looking her up and down, as if judging if she was a threat to Sakura. The red haired Kumiko was smiling as much as Kirsche knew she herself was, a twinkle in her eye stating that, like Kankuro, Kumiko was thinking she might be Sakura's mother. The blond haired Kouta looked her up and down once, then dismissed her, his hand straying to a pocket big enough to hold a book. And then there was the Uchiha.

The black hair youth, much like Temari, had a calculating look in his eyes, but Kirsche knew it was not just Sakura he was looking out for, but his mission's successful completion as well. Kirsche knew that to him, serving his village was everything. His mission would always come first, and she knew that if he viewed her as a threat to his mission, he would kill her...even if she was connected to the friend of one of the people he was here to protect. Kirsche turned her eyes away from his intense gaze, instead turning to lock gazes with Sakura's wide green eyes. The girl was staring, but within moments a small smile lit her face. Turning to Kankuro, the little girl chirped, "Kirsche says she's related to my mother. She said she'll teach me things about my clan later, but that right now we can play. Come on, Temari's It!"

"H-hey," growled Temari in surprise as Sakura and her brothers leaped up and ran in different directions. Jumping up, she went after the nearest, Sakura. As she ran after the giggling girl, she realized that, although Sakura had made her It without warning, she had also made Kankuro forget, in his rush to get away, what he had been going to say to embarrass her. Good. She didn't want anyone to know that at the market they had run into her dance teacher who had told Kumiko that she, Temari, had potential...no...no one needed to know something so horrifying.

As Sakura pulled ahead of her, Temari had to wonder if Sakura had helped her on purpose or if she was just that anxious to start playing. Whichever it was, Temari was thankful...though not enough to allow Sakura to escape from becoming It next. Temari put on a burst of speed, throwing herself at Sakura, succeeding in wrapping an arm around her waist and thus transferring the position of It to the girl who had already done so to her. Their momentum made them both fall, but Temari wasted no time. Righting herself, she turned on the girl and started tickling her. Her effort was rewarded with suquees and giggles. When Kankuro tried to save Sakura, he received the same treatment. Gaara didn't interfere. Sakura was laughing, not screaming...and he didn't want to be tickled.

* * *

The children's games continued until well into the evening when Youko entered the park, her shift at the Hospital over. Yashamaru watched as Sakura broke away from the throng of children to run and hug her aunt. Although his eyes were no longer on her, he was constantly aware of where Kirsche was and what she was doing. Youko laughed and picked Sakura up, but her smile fell when her eyes landed on Kirsche. Yashamaru didn't like how his childhood friend paled at the sight of the Hoshi; just another thing to hold against Kirsche, he thought.

Despite her blanched exterior, Youko walked slowly over to Kirsche, greeting her courteously if not warmly. Yashamaru could read in her eyes that Youko feared the same thing he did: namely that Kirsche, despite all she had said, was here to take Sakura away with her. Of course, she probably didn't yet know that Kirsche had said otherwise, but he, at least, felt that her denial couldn't be trusted any more than she could.

Holding Sakura to her, Youko stated cautiously, "You would be of her birth mother's family." Kirsche nodded. Yashamaru didn't miss Youko's hitch in breath before she continued, "Well..." he also caught the quick glance she sent his way, though not what meaning was being conveyed in that brief glance, "I suppose you would like to speak with her parents..." she took another glance, this time at the setting sun, "and you would need a place for the night." Kirsche just smiled gently, perhaps not wanting to startle the nervous woman with a verbal conformation. Youko cleared her throat uneasily, "Then we had better go...Sakura, say goodbye to Temari and her brother." Yashamaru noted her deliberate use of the singular...Youko still didn't want to acknowledge Gaara, not that he could blame her.

Sakura groaned in her aunt's arms, but did as she was bid, "Bye, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara! I'll see you tomorrow." Youko shifted Sakura in her arms as she said goodbye to Yashamaru. She then ushered Kirsche out of the park quickly, as if she were running from something. Unbeknownst to Yashamaru, what she desperately wanted to escape wasn't just the frightening thought that Kirsche might take Sakura from them, but also that she might reveal the truth of who Sakura's father was. She couldn't let anyone from Suna know that her brother wasn't the girl's father. She knew that that was all that kept Sakura from being ostracized by the village and the thought that Kirsche might ruin Sakura's chances of a happy life here kept Youko's nerves strung tight. As if understanding this, Kirsche followed behind her silently, the gentle, comforting smile of earlier still on her face.

The sun had set by the time they reached the house. Sakura had fallen asleep in her aunt's arms making it hard for Youko to open the door by herself. Luckily, after only a moment of standing before the door, it was opened from within by Shin. Youko's brother didn't blink an eye when Youko was followed in by Kirsche, though he did look at her curiously. "Thank you, little brother," Youko said quietly, "Could you put Sakura to bed, then get Haruka and meet us in the dining area." Shin nodded, carefully taking Sakura from his sister and walking out of the room. Without looking at Kirsche, Youko started forward, her hands twisting together nervously, "This way."

Kirsche sat at the table she was directed to while Youko, unable to hold still, started to boil tea. By the time four cups were on the table, Shin and Haruka were settling themselves across from Kirsche, Shin calmly, Haruka confusedly. As Youko pulled up a chair, she explained briefly to Haruka, "She says she's come to see Sakura," Turning to look at the pink haired young woman before them, she added, "though I don't know why or what else she has planned."

Before Kirsche could introduce herself, Haruka spoke softly but with very little doubt in her voice, "You're a Hoshi, correct?" Kirsche nodded, about to speak again, but as before, Haruka beat her to it. "As soon as I saw you, I knew. You look just like the Hoshi girl Li once escorted back to her village." Her voice cracked at the mention of her late brother, but her eyes didn't waver as she added, "I've always suspected she was Sakura's mother, though Li never did say. She was, wasn't she?" Kirsche nodded but before she could speak Haruka interrupted once again, her voice rising as she spoke, "And you're closely related to that girl, aren't you?" she didn't wait for a reply as tears blurred her vision, "I know you are, but please, don't take Sakura! Don't take my little girl away!"

Kirsche interjected with a sigh before Haruka's tears could fall, "I'm not here to take Sakura from Suna."

"You're not?" Haruka's voice reveled the relief that she and the other two felt. "Then why...?"

Taking a sip of tea, Kirsche spoke softly but directly, "I've come to train Sakura." Haruka opened her mouth to argue about her having nothing to train Sakura in, but Kirsche raised her hand to silence her. "Before you say anything, let me explain that despite her mixed heritage, Sakura does indeed have what it takes to become one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_, but she will need training before that can happen. I'm the only one who can teach her and now is the only time I can train her. She's still a bit young, but the next time I would be available to come here would be too late."

Haruka nodded numbly, only a hint of confusion in her eyes. Youko had more than just a hint, though, "What are you talking about?" asked she, "What is this See Ausda...whatever it was and what does it have to do with Sakura and you?"

Smiling, Kirsche explained calmly while looking into Youko's smoke gray eyes with her tiny pupils in their sea of blue, "Any Hoshi who has properly awakened their Kekkei Genkai is one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_. I am of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_, and with proper training, one day Sakura will be too. The fact that Li Haruno was not of Hoshi blood holds no sway over her having her Hoshi Kekkei Genkai: it's in her blood." Haruka nodded wearily, her eyes clouding at the mention of her brother. The mention of Li also effected Youko, but her reaction wasn't grief of a past event. Rather, it was a reaction in fear of the future...more specifically, the fear of the future of a little pink haired girl sleeping just down the hall.

Leaning across the table, Youko spoke on behalf of Sakura's happiness, "I'm sure by now half the village knows that you have come, claiming relation to Sakura...there's nothing we can do about that. Perhaps it was a blessing that it was reveled that Haruka wasn't her birth mother, but...about her father..."

Kirsche put up her hand once more, motioning for Youko to allow her to speak. When she was certain she wouldn't be interrupted, the calmly smiling young woman spoke, a glint in her eye, "You needn't worry. I've already protected her little secret. No one will find out from me that her father is not this young man here." Youko gasped in shock, but it was Shin himself who spoke next.

"I thank you, but may I know how you knew about her true parentage being a secret. No one should know aside from the three of us."

The smile Kirsche turned on him was warm and friendly, though her words were rather distant, "It's my job to know these kinds of things...as to how, well, I am a Hoshi..." as Kirsche said this, something happened that startled even the ever stoic Shin: the blues of her eyes started to rove around her eyes lethargically, leaving behind the pinprick pupils to stare him down. The pupils didn't budge no matter where the blues of her eyes went as Kirsche finished her statement bluntly, "...and nothing can hide from my Eyes, especially in regards to Junko's daughter." If anyone else had sad it, it would have sounded like a threat, but Kirsche's nonchalant facade made it seem as if it were just an ordinary statement of facts. As Youko leaned back in her chair, she couldn't help but think that perhaps to Kirsche it _was_ something ordinary.

Shin nodded solemnly, "I cannot say I fully understand, but I get the feeling that you are looking out for Sakura's best interests." Kirsche nodded, then Shin continued, looking briefly at his wife before turning his attention back to Kirsche, "Very well, then. I know that Kekkei Genkai are nothing to play around with. If Sakura has inherited her mother's line, then it would be best that she be taught how to master it by someone of that same line."

Kirsche bowed her head respectfully, "I am glad we've come to an agreement."

Youko, feeling calmer now that she knew the new arrival wouldn't be whisking Sakura away or revealing things she shouldn't, asked, "You know she still has to go to school, right? That will cut into the time available for you to use; so how long will this training take, do you think? Will she have time for anything else?" Youko couldn't help but hope deep in her heart that this training would take up most of the girls waking hours, even if it meant she got to spend less time with her. After all, if Sakura was kept busy long enough, perhaps she would forget something so dangerous as a friendship with a monster.

As if reading her mind, Kirshe's smile turned almost sly, "Oh, yes, she'll have plenty of time. I'll start her training early, before she goes to school, and I'll continue it after dinner. I would hate to interrupt her young social life...it will be very important for her future."

"Oh..." sighed Youko, "I see..."

* * *

**IMPORTANT**: I will be posting a poll regarding a future event. If you have an account, please go to my profile page and click on the poll to make your choice. If you don't have an account, then please send a review with your vote (of course, even if you do have a account your welcome to send in a review). Here is what the poll will be about: Should Itachi kill his clan in this story? Yes/No

Once again I'm sorry for the long wait. Amongst other things, I was held back by finals, illness, and a computer killed by a power outage. I still have limited access to a computer, but I'll try to update in a more timely manner if I can. Also, the computer I have access to has limited spell-check ability, so if you find any errors, please tell me where they are.

Anyone who's read through A Continuous Circle/And the Circle Comes Round should recognize what's going on with Kirsche and her Hoshi Eyes...and you might even be able to tell who Kirsche is. There will be plenty of hints, though I doubt I'll actually ever outright say who she is in the story. It keeps the readers on their toes.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to play tag with Sakura, Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro...flamers, however, will be sent to play with Orochimaru instead. Now that we have that down, let's move on the the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Zedax (in answer to your question, yes, I am planning on this going past Childhood), Cindy Medeiros, wolfxanime, annarolls (you are right about the dimensions portion of your review and mostly right with your statement of this Sakura vs. ACC's Sakura), SnowWolfSpirit, & Jasmin Liertha (your close to the truth, though I can't tell you any more than that) for reviewing!


	10. Beginning to Learn

Disclaimer: _You_ have a thing or two to learn if you really thought Naruto belonged to me.

Chapter 10: Beginning to Learn

The next day Sakura was woken before the sun had even risen. Bleary eyed, Sakura complained, "I don't wanna, Auntie…" Then her sleep filled eyes landed on pink hair and, for a moment, she wondered who had replaced her aunt with a mirror—then she recognized Kirsche and shot up in bed. "Where's Auntie?" A quick glance out the dark window brought out another question, "And why am I awake?"

Blue eyes twinkled at her as Kirsche answered lightly, "She's in the kitchen, making breakfast, and we're going to begin training as soon as we've finished eating." Sakura couldn't understand what Kirsche was talking about, but before she could ask…or fall back asleep, two hands were picking her up under her arms. "Now, up you go." Sakura shivered as she was dragged from her warm cocoon of covers and placed on her feet on the cool floor. Sakura watched tiredly as Kirsche went to her closet and brought back two dresses, one blue, one red. Holding them up, she asked, "Which one do you want to wear? The Red? Ok, here, put it on." As Sakura shrugged off her nightgown and shrugged on the dress she had been handed, Kirsche put the blue dress away. When that was done, Sakura let herself be herded down the hall to where the smell of eggs was coming from.

By the time Sakura had finished her eggs, rice, and milk she was completely awake…and curious as to why she was. When Kirsche set down her empty tea cup, Sakura asked, bouncing in her chair, "Why am I up? You said something about training? What kind of training? Why? What about school? What—" Kirsche was chuckling. "What's so funny?" Kirsche shook her head.

"Nothing," It wasn't Kirsche who had answered, though, but Auntie Youko, "and sit properly, Sakura." Sakura immediately quit bouncing, instead choosing to look up at Youko inquisitively. Youko smiled, but her eyes were serious. "Listen Sakura, Kirsche here has come to see you as a representative of your mother's family…your birth mother's." Sakura nodded; Kirsche had said as much yesterday. "Do you know anything about your birth mother, Sakura?"

Sakura nodded and stated the only thing she really did know, "Mother's dead, just like Father."

Youko patted Sakura on the head, but her own was shaking, "No, Sakura, remember, your birth mother may be dead, but your father, my brother is still alive." Sakura opened her mouth to argue, but was interrupted, "Is that all you know?" Sakura nodded, deciding not to add that she knew Kirsche was related to her mother, just in case her aunt said she was wrong about that too, even though she knew she wasn't. Youko seemed to appreciate her silence. With a nod, her aunt added, "I figured as much. Haruka wouldn't have told you anything since she, herself, wasn't sure." Sakura watched as her normally cheerful aunt turned soberly to Kirsche, "But I believe Kirsche could explain the situation better than I could."

Sakura looked at the pink haired woman she had met yesterday. Kirsche's strange blue eyes looked back. "That I could. Sakura, your mother was a Hoshi, and as a member of the Hoshi clan she had a Kekkei Genkai which has been passed on to you."

Sakura tilted her head to the side, confused. She had no clue what a Kekkei Genkai was, but it sounded like it was contagious. Kirsche smiled understandingly as she explained, "A Kekkei Genkai is a special ability passed through the blood from parents to children. This special ability cannot be used by anyone who wasn't born to the clan. Although your eyes are not blue like most of the Hoshi, you were indeed born to the Hoshi clan, and with the proper training you will be able to use your Hoshi Eyes. But before that, you must become one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_."

Tilting her head the other way, Sakura asked, "What are the 'Hoshi Eyes' and…" the little girl's face screwed up as she tried to pronounce the foreign words, "See Auda-nung Gay-heron?"

Kirsche smiled, obviously enjoying Sakura's attempt, "It's,_ Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_, and to become one you must awaken your Kekkei Genkai, which lays dormant within you. There are many things you will need to learn before that can happen, but when it does, you will gain your Eyes." Lifting one finger, Kirsche pointed to her own eyes.

Sakura's mouth dropped when the blue of Kirsche's eyes started moving around without taking their tiny pupils with them. "These are the Hoshi Eyes…you'll be learning about these as a part of your training." With that, Kirsche's irises snapped back to their corresponding pupil as if they had never gone wandering. As Sakura watched, Kirsche turned back to Auntie Youko, "That is all I can say at the moment though. The rest are Hoshi secrets that will be kept as such." Those strange eyes snapped back to Sakura, "We will be training twice a day, once before you leave for school and then again after dinner. Until you get past the basics, that will be enough."

* * *

Sakura ran to meet Gaara at the park after school, trying not to cry as she sped away. Once again no one had talked to her at school that didn't have to, not even the teachers. However, it was not what wasn't said that was making Sakura hurry so much, desperate to meet with her friends; rather, it was the clipped remark her teacher had made when she had asked a very simple question.

Ever since Kumiko and Kirsche had saved her and Gaara from the strange men, a thought had been playing itself out in Sakura's impressionable mind. Those men had been after Gaara…and afterwards, before her aunt took her home, Gaara had apologized—as if he were at fault. Sakura didn't like that, and she couldn't help but wonder if she had been able to protect herself at least, if not him as well, that maybe he wouldn't have blamed himself for what those bad men had done. Kirsche had already assured her that one day she would be able to freeze people in place like she had, but that it would be a long time before that happened. And so Sakura decided to ask her teacher how she could become a ninja like Kumiko. She never expected the response she got.

Turning a corner at full speed, Sakura caught sight of a red shock of hair. Recognizing Gaara immediately, Sakura didn't slow down, but instead ran and threw herself on him, hugging him tightly while fighting back tears. Gaara was shocked. Thankfully he had been looking for her; otherwise her sudden hug might have caused his sands to hurt her. He _had_ seen her coming, but he hadn't had enough time to control his sands…but as her arms squeezed him, Gaara realized that his sands hadn't moved at all. This, on top of the unexpected hug, shocked Gaara so much that he didn't stop to think of why Sakura had projected herself forward like that until his sister's voice broke into his thoughts.

"Sakura! What's wrong?" Sakura almost jumped in surprise. She hadn't realized that Temari was there, a glance around showed Sakura that it was only Temari though, not Kankuro or their Konoha babysitters. "Are you crying, Sakura?" Sakura shook her head no, but couldn't bring herself to let go of Gaara. His presence comforted her, and she feared that if she let go now, she might really cry. She wasn't willing to let go, but she did lift her face to look at Temari so that she could see the lack of tearstains. Thus she saw that Temari's eyebrows were scrunched together with worry.

"What happened?" It wasn't Temari—it was Gaara. Sakura couldn't answer, her attention was held instead by the small dust devil forming behind Temari. All Sakura could think, as Gaara asked his question again, was that there was no wind to make a dust devil. "Did someone hurt you?" It took a moment for the question to sink in as Sakura stared over Temari's shoulder at the growing sand funnel. During her hospital stay she had read all about dust devils. They may have been composed of dust, or in this case sand, but they weren't supposed to work without wind…and yet this one was, and she was having a hard time wrapping her mind around that fact.

"W-what?" Sakura queried, unable to tear her eyes away from the mini-cyclone. Temari, having noticed that something had caught Sakura's attention, turned to see what it was. As Sakura watched, Temari paled, scuttling farther away from both the windless sand funnel and her brother. Although Sakura knew that the not-dust-devil was strange, she couldn't understand why Temari looked so frightened. She was about to ask when Gaara spoke again, this time his voice tight with something akin to anger.

"Did anyone hurt you, Sakura?" This time Sakura did tear her eyes from the sand anomaly to look at Gaara questioningly; she had already forgotten, thanks to the sand funnel distraction, that she had just been on the verge of tears. When Gaara saw her shake her head no, his anger diminished and the sand that had been acting upon it ceased spinning. However, he knew that there was still something wrong.

"Then what were you upset about?" Gaara glared at Temari as she asked the question he had been going to. Unlike Sakura, he knew why Temari had retreated so quickly, and he couldn't bring himself to forgive her just yet. The fact that her face contorted with fear when she saw his glare angered him even more. He knew he should be used to it by now, that's how everyone reacted, or at least everyone other than his pink haired burr, but it still made him unhappy.

Not noticing the exchange, Sakura's face drooped as she let go of Gaara to plop down on the ground. Playing with the dust just to keep her hands busy, Sakura stated simply, "He said I could never be a ninja."

Both siblings' eyes narrowed, though for different reasons, and it was Gaara who asked who she was talking about. As Sakura answered, Temari just shut her eyes, understanding perfectly why Sakura's teacher had said such a thing. When she opened them again, she realized that neither Gaara nor Sakura understood it the way she did. Even though she had a feeling she knew what the answer would be, Temari had to ask, "Did he say why?"

Sakura nodded, her little hands digging into the ground as she tried not to let her voice wobble, "He said nobody would want to teach an outsider like me."

Temari cringed as Gaara scowled and Sakura's eyes started to glimmer with unshed tears again. Hoping to avert disaster, Temari quickly stated, "Well, what does he know, he's not a part of the ninja academy. Besides, Sakura, I don't know what it was like back where you're from, but here in Suna, unless there are very special circumstances, you can't choose to enter the ninja academy until you're seven. You've still got two years, so don't sweat it."

Sakura's eyes widened, the sheen disappearing, "I didn't know that." Temari nodded. She hadn't thought that stupid, no-good teacher of hers would have thought to tell her that. After all, she really doubted he wanted her to have any hope at all. In the end, Temari knew, there was the possibility that in two years time people's hostility towards Sakura could be forgotten, or at least diminished enough to let her prove her ability. And if she did get accepted and was able to pass the final exam and become a Genin, Temari was sure someone, perhaps even her uncle, would be willing to take her in as a student, even if no one wanted her on an official three-man team.

Suddenly Sakura stood up and dusted off her hands. "I guess that means I'll just have to wait, and become a powerful Hoshi first, just like Kirsche."

Gaara, remembering his first encounter with the mysterious woman, smiled. "If you become just like her, you might not need to be a ninja."

Sakura laughed, but in her heart she felt that being a ninja was just as important as learning whatever Kirsche was going to teach her. Shaking her head, Sakura asked, "I might not be able to be one yet, but who wants to play Ninja?" Naturally, everyone agreed and the game began. And for a while, the cause of Sakura's distress was forgotten.

Midway through their game of Ninja, something occurred to Sakura, making her turn to her partner, Gaara, and the enemy they were trying to capture, Temari. "Where is Kumiko and that Uchiha boy? Weren't they supposed to be with you?" Kankuro was missing as well, but she could guess that he was off somewhere learning more puppet tricks.

Gaara shrugged and Temari answered, "Kumiko got sick so she has to stay in bed, and uncle said that the other two would be assisting him with questioning those guys Kirsche caught. He also said that they finished the meeting with the tribes yesterday, and that they've already left, so we should be fine without babysitters today."

Sakura nodded, "I see…" Then, without warning, she tackled Temari to the ground, "I've caught the Mist Ninja, Gaara!" Temari, quickly understanding that the game had resumed, struggled to get out of Sakura's grasp before her brother got to them, but to no avail. Gaara had seen Sakura prepare to tackle Temari, and had moved accordingly so that he could assist. Now that she was on the ground, he sat on her. With his and Sakura's weight put together they were able to keep down Gaara's older sister and start interrogating her about Mists' super secret evil plans.

* * *

When dinnertime came, Kirsche picked up Sakura from the park and walked her home in silence, and after dinner Kirsche led the girl into the backyard where their lessons would commence. However, by this time Sakura's disappointment from earlier had returned, and Kirsche didn't miss it. As they sat cross-legged on the ground, Kirsche asked, "Before we begin, would you tell me what is bothering you?"

Sakura played with the hem of her dress as she gave Kirsche the rundown she had given her friends earlier about what her teacher had said. When she finished, Sakura glanced up to see what kind of face Kirsche was making, and found that, as usual, she was smiling. It wasn't a mean smile, or the kind that said she found the situation funny, but to Sakura's surprise, the smile was more like one of understanding mixed with something else, something Sakura just couldn't find a name for. Not expecting such a reaction, Sakura asked suddenly, "Why are you happy?"

Kirsche's smile shifted to one of bemusement. "A smile doesn't necessarily mean one is happy, Sakura." Well, that made no sense, but Sakura didn't get a chance to comment as Kirsche continued, "As to why I smiled, it's because I know everything will work out." Sakura opened her mouth to argue that there was no way Kirsche could know for sure, but Kirsche beat her to it, "And yes, I do know, Sakura. Part of the reason I'm here is to make sure that things work out as they are supposed to. It's my job, you could say."

Sakura's brows knit with confusion, "I don't get it. How can you know something like that? It's not like people can see the future…if they could, that would mean my teacher was right, and I don't want him to be right... Why are you smiling like that?" Kirsche's smile had shifted once again, this time making Sakura feel like she had missed something, though she couldn't think of what it could be. However, the reason was soon reveled.

"You are under a common misconception...though it is true most people, such as your teacher, cannot see the future, it is not an impossible feat." Sakura didn't understand all the words Kirsche had used, but it was sounding like Kirsche was saying the impossible was possible…but could it really be? As if reading her mind, Kirsche added, "Not many can do it, but there are a few people out there with the ability to See the future…" the corner of Kirsche's smile jerked upwards in an almost smirk as she finished, "and they are all of the Hoshi line."

Sakura's eyes widened with shock. She wanted to ask how that was possible, but no matter how many times she opened and closed her mouth, all she succeeded in doing was to look like a fish, and not a very convincing one, either. Kirsche's smile changed once again, to a warm but serious smile without any hint of withheld laughter. This, more than anything, told her that Kirsche wasn't joking. Kirsche cleared her throat, "And this leads into our lessons. It is time I told you more about what exactly the Hoshi Kekkei Genkai is and does. Make yourself comfortable, Sakura, there is a lot to explain."

When Kirsche felt Sakura was ready, she began, "Unlike other peoples' Kekkei Genkai, the Hoshi clan never truly named theirs. Many, when speaking about it, either mention it as using their Eyes or, if they wish to be less specific when around those who don't understand, they talk of it as their being one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_." Sakura nodded, though she couldn't really understand why someone would want to use such a long and hard name when they could simply use the first option.

Kirsche continued, "As I said earlier, though a Hoshi is born with their Kekkei Genkai, it must be awoken before they can use it. The exact way this is done differs depending on the person, though a scroll is used no matter what. There are four different scrolls and once the proper scroll has been used the young Hoshi will have full use of their Kekkei Genkai, though they will still need to learn how to control it."

Sakura raised her hand as if she were in class, "How do you know what the right scroll is and what happens if it isn't the right scroll?"

Kirsche smiled, glad that Sakura was asking questions. "I'll explain that first part later, but as to if it isn't a scroll that will awaken the Kekkei Genkai, then it will simply do what it is made to do, just without the added benefit of awakening. You see, though the scrolls are important for the awakening process, that is not their only purpose. Any Hoshi can use any of the scrolls no matter what kind of Hoshi they are, but only the scroll or scrolls that match the Hoshi's type will be able to awaken their Kekkei Genkai. There are even a few non-Hoshi who can use the scrolls, though it does no more than the basics for them." Sakura nodded, trying to absorb everything as fast as she could.

Kirsche continued, "Now, the four types of Hoshi that I mentioned are Time Walkers, Spirit Walkers, Dream Walkers, and Element Walkers. Every Hoshi is at least one of these, though some, such as myself, have more than one to their name. To give you a very basic understanding, Time Walkers have the ability to easily travel to the past and back as well as the ability to see possible futures, Spirit Walkers have the ability to speak to the dead, Dream Walkers can talk to others in dreams and some have prophetic dream-visions, and finally Element Walkers cannot be harmed by the elements, and they also tend to be very good at elemental Jutsu."

Smiling, Kirsche pulled a scroll out of a pouch on her hip and showed it to Sakura. "Each of these types of Walkers are awakened by one of four scrolls, the Time Walkers by The Scroll of the Circle, the Element Walkers by 'The Scroll of the Sphere', the Dream Walkers by 'The Scroll of the Loop' and the Spirit Walkers by 'The scroll of the Ring'. They are not very original names, but that's what they're called. This one is the one you will use, The Scroll of the Circle." Sakura reached out for the scroll, but Kirsche pulled away, swiftly putting the scroll back. "You won't be using it yet, though. Not until you are fully prepared."

Sakura pouted, but quickly recovered when she thought to ask, "If that one's mine, then does that mean I'm a Time Walker?" Kirsche nodded, smiling proudly. "Then that means I'll be able to see the future?" Kirsche nodded again, beginning to speak only to be interrupted by an excited Sakura, "And you know this because you're a Time Walker and can see the future too, right?" Kirsche couldn't help but beam at Sakura's educated guess.

Before Sakura asked another question, Kirsche forced herself into the conversation, needing to point something out, "You are correct, I am a Time Walker and one day you will be as well and you will also be able to see possible futures…but they will be just that, merely possible, not for sure." Sakura's face showed her bewilderment.

Kirsche's smile shifted to a kind, understanding smile as she added, "I think I should explain the Laws of Time to you. There are three: Time is nothing but a continuous circle, the past cannot be changed, and the future is not set until the deciding action is made. The one you need to understand right now is the last one. There are a plethora of possible futures, and every action every person can possibly make effects these futures. Once a person has made the decision to act in a certain way, the other possible futures go away leaving only the set future, but usually by then that set future has come to be known as the present—not always, but usually."

Sakura nodded, though she wasn't sure she really understood. Just as she thought this, Kirsche's smile shifted to some other kind of smile for what felt like the thousandth time that day. As Kirsche began a second, less complex explanation, Sakura's mind wandered. For the first time it crossed Sakura's mind that Kirsche was a bit strange. It wasn't that she had pink hair or strange eyes or came from some clan Sakura had never heard of before; rather, it was that she always seemed to be smiling, but it wasn't the same smile that everyone else used. Her smiles always seemed to be different, and sometimes, such as when Kirsche had first greeted Kumiko's father, Sakura couldn't help but think that they weren't always happy smiles. Kirsche had even said as much. But Sakura found it hard to comprehend why Kirsche smiled even if she wasn't happy and she wasn't sure she ever would.

The smile on Kirsche's face shifted again as she noticed Sakura's distant look and stated cryptically, "One day you will understand…"

* * *

I hope people enjoyed this long chapter, and by now, if you've read through at least A Continuous Circle, you will definitely see how these are sister stories.

My poll is still open as to whether Itachi should kill his clan or not in this story. It's an important question, so please vote either on my profile pole or in a review. I have ideas for either option, but I need to know soon so that I can set the story in the proper direction.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome in to my air conditioned abode…flamers, on the other hand, can stay out in the oven…I'm sure we'd all feel more comfortable with that arrangement. Now, onto the _pretty list_!

Thanks to:hot-ninja-babe (thank you for being one of the few to vote), ForgottenKunai (thank you for your praise and your vote. I do have one questions for you though. Are you saying that you would like Itachi to kill the Uchiha clan so that there can be 'some division in the Uchihas' as you stated, or just that you would like a disturbance amoung the clan that causes the death of at least some of the Uchiha's, such as their father?), SnowWolfSpirit (The answer is yes and no...if you want a more decisisve ansewer, you'd be better to ask in person, Sui-chan, you know how confusing I can get), Cindy Medeiros, Zedax, Jasmin Liertha (don't worry, it's better to be close than completely off), & Lyte the Warrior (I don't blame you for disliking Evil Sasuke, thanks for the vote) for reviewing!


	11. Detention

Disclaimer: I hope you've learned in school what to 'disclaim' means. If not…look it up.

Chapter 11: Detention

The next few days took on a pattern. Sakura would wake up early to eat and have lessons with Kirsche before going to school. After school she'd meet up with Gaara and they'd do something until Kirsche came to bring her home for dinner and more lessons. This morning, though, Sakura was awoken before the sun rose, but this time she wasn't brought to the kitchen to eat before lessons. Instead, Kirsche got her dressed quickly and, taking her by the hand, led her out the front door. "Where're we going?" Sakura asked tiredly as she was tugged down the road.

Kirsche smiled gently as she continued to urge the child to step quickly. "Your Konoha friends have been called back. I thought it would be good for you to say goodbye." Sakura stumbled, but didn't fall thanks to Kirsche's guarding hand.

"Kumiko's leaving?" Sakura asked, aghast. Over the past few days, she and Gaara had gone and visited the red haired girl. It was only a cold, but her father insisted that she stay in bed and so that's where Sakura and her friend went for at least an hour each day. Sakura idolized Kumiko. The way Kumiko had stood up to those bad men, even though she was much younger and outnumbered had struck a chord with Sakura. Even though by now Sakura knew both of Kumiko's teammates were much stronger physically than her, Sakura felt that Kumiko had a strength that, though different, was perhaps better than that of her teammates. Sakura knew the kind of courage it took to face adversaries that were bigger and stronger than herself, and to her, that kind of strength was the kind that made people great. To Sakura, Kumiko was the kind of person she wanted to be. And now she was leaving?

Kirsche nodded and answered without slowing down, "Yes, her and her team are leaving at sunrise." Sakura felt her heart sink and it showed on her face. Kirsche smiled warmly, "Don't fret, Sakura. You'll get to say goodbye, and perhaps one day you'll see some of them again." Sakura nodded, though she didn't feel encouraged. Kirsche just kept smiling as they pulled up in front of the gate that led out of Suna. When Sakura saw that there were two red-heads there she felt relieved. At least Gaara would be there to say goodbye with her. Maybe that would help her not to feel so abandoned as her idol left Suna, perhaps never to be seen again.

Sakura dropped Kirsche's hand as she ran out to hug Kumiko, trying not to cry. As Gaara walked over to Sakura's side, Kirsche looked around at the others who were out this early. Kumiko's father, Noya, stood beside Yashamaru, thanking him jubilantly for his knowledge on desert remedies and stating how he wished he had time to learn more. The blonde haired Kouta was off to the side, nodding whenever Noya said something to him but otherwise reading an orange book that Kirsche knew he wasn't supposed to be reading. Then Kirsche's eyes met the black eyes of the last member of the team, and she became well aware that the young Uchiha was studying her.

Kirsche smiled brightly at those serious eyes, unafraid of the Sharingan hidden within that she knew he was entirely capable of activating. Walking towards him, Kirsche held out her hand in greeting. "I don't believe we were ever properly introduced." He looked at her hand carefully, as if making sure she wasn't hiding anything before lightly grasping it for the barest of moments. Knowing the young man wouldn't introduce himself without prompting, Kirsche began chipperly, "I'm called Kirsche and I'm of the Hoshi clan. What would you like me to call you?" Her words were chosen with care. She knew that the first name both he and Kouta had given were not their true names, though Kumiko and Noya had been allowed to give their real names since they weren't well known. Of course, she couldn't tell him this, he'd want to know how she knew, and that was a Hoshi secret.

The boy, his black hair tied back in a ponytail, studied her a moment longer. He had noticed her choice of words, and was sure that the pink haired woman before him was also not giving her true name, though he also read in her stance and words that she was indeed a Hoshi. However, he had a feeling Hoshi wasn't really her last name, just as Kirsche wasn't her real first name. If those had been her real names, she would have said as much. She might be _called_ Kirsche, but that wasn't her name, or at least not her full name. Why she wasn't telling the full truth, he didn't know, but he sensed no hostility or hidden agendas.

"Uchiha," he answered directly. He wouldn't give his false name, he had a feeling she'd know it was false, but since they were on a mission, he wouldn't give his real name, either. Kirsche grinned as he stated the obvious, "Who I am shouldn't matter, though, since we're leaving."

Shaking her head lightly, Kirsche retorted, "Yes, but when I'm finished here I might pass through Konoha briefly. If I do, I'd like to know someone there." Her smile was almost blindingly bright as she added almost teasingly, "Besides, you're the only one without someone to say goodbye to you, and that just won't do. It's not good to keep to yourself all the time. You'll live a lonely life if you do." The young Uchiha's brows almost snapped together, but he was too good at hiding his emotions to allow that to happen. Still, he didn't like how this practical stranger seemed to be speaking about him as if she really knew him. Given more time, he might have said something else, but just then the sun poked above the horizon and Noya called out that it was time to set off.

As they walked away, the Uchiha could hear the little pink haired girl, Sakura, crying goodbye as they disappeared out of sight, but his thoughts remained on the other one with pink hair, the one who gave the false name of Kirsche.

* * *

Because Sakura refused to quit waving at Kumiko until she couldn't see her anymore, Sakura was late to school, something she had never done before. In fact, never before had she done anything to warrant punishment, and it had the faculty talking. Usually the punishment would be obvious, coming late meant one had to stay late, in detention, but the teachers weren't sure if they should do so. After all, everyone knew what happened the day the monster boy had found out Sakura had been bullied, and nobody wanted a repeat. What would Shukaku's host do if Sakura was given detention? Some feared he'd react violently, but as Sakura's homeroom teacher pointed out, it's not like they would be actually hurting the girl, and if they made sure she received the exact same treatment as any other Suna student, then surely he couldn't react due to their unfairness either.

When Sakura was told she had to stay after school for detention, the tiny child started bawling her eyes out, though she stayed behind obediently. Sakura cried until she couldn't cry anymore, and by then she noticed that her homeroom teacher had reentered the room. The older woman didn't look happy, but unlike most of Sakura's teachers, she didn't look at Sakura like she wished she wasn't there, either. "Are you done yet?" asked the older woman harshly. Sakura jerkily nodded her head, sniffling. "Good. You'd be better off spending this time working on homework."

When Sakura didn't move to take out her homework, the woman spoke harshly once more, "Don't dally, child. There's no point in saving it for later. Do it now and be over with it." Tentatively Sakura raised her hand, not sure if she was allowed to speak during this punishment called detention. "What is it?" asked the woman roughly, though not unkindly, "Do you not understand how to do something?" Sakura shook her head. "Well then, what is it?"

Taking that as a sign that she could speak, Sakura lowered her hand and spoke softly, adverting her eyes, "I…I've finished it already." The homeroom teacher just blinked at her, as if not understanding what she was saying, so Sakura added softly, "I got done in class." The teachers eyes flashed and narrowed, and Sakura, fearing the worst, huddled down in her chair, gasping out, "I'm sorry!" as she threw her hands over her head, as if to ward off any blow that may come. None did.

When Sakura looked up, she found that her homeroom teacher was at the teacher's desk, shaking her head as she shuffled through some papers. Then the older woman looked up and caught Sakura's frightened gaze, and rolled her eyes. "Oh, quit shaking, I'm not angry." She sure sounded angry, though. Pulling something from the pile, the teacher turned to the chalk board, ignoring Sakura's still fearful look. As she began writing on the board, the teacher spoke gruffly, "Pull out paper and a pencil. This time is for learning, not sitting idle. If you have no homework left then I will need to give you something to think about." Sakura jumped to obey.

As Sakura's homeroom teacher scrawled math problems on the board, Sakura rushed to copy them down. When she finished, Sakura was surprised at how easy the problems were, even though there were more than just two numbers being added or subtracted from each other. She had never done anything like these extended problems before, but she was already good at basic addition and subtraction, so it took her mere moments to figure out how to work with more than just two numbers at a time. Within five minutes she had finished all the problems. When the older woman noticed, she scowled.

Sakura flinched, but her homeroom teacher didn't yell at her. Instead, the woman returned to the teacher's desk, muttering to herself loudly enough for Sakura to hear some of what she said, "Oh, for…why wasn't I told…" Sakura watched as the woman opened a drawer and roughly pulled out a clipboard Sakura recognized. It was the clipboard that the teachers used to mark their homework grades and, as Sakura had noticed, any other bits of information they felt should be noted, though Sakura didn't know what. As the older woman flipped pages on the clipboard, her face darkened. She was mumbling again, "…kidding me…not a single…have they been doing…"

The clipboard suddenly slammed down on the table, making Sakura jump. Her homeroom teacher looked furious. Sakura shrank back in her chair. She didn't know the older woman very well, she was only in the this room for homeroom, after that she went to teach the upperclassmen, but Sakura had heard that the only reason this gruff woman was her homeroom teacher was because she had lost a bet…or something like that. Sakura wasn't sure of the reason, but everyone in class feared the woman and couldn't wait for her to leave and their first instructor to start their lessons, if only to be out from under her disapproving gaze. Sakura gulped as her homeroom teacher swiped the chalk and practically slammed it on the chalkboard, her hand blazing across it as if it were being chased. Sakura couldn't see what was being written until the woman moved and allowed the problems she had written on the board to be visible.

Sakura picked up her pencil and began to copy down the problem, but stopped when the older woman spoke agitatedly, "Do them in order, and don't write down the next one until you've finished the first. As soon as you have questions, tell me. Don't try to pretend you understand something if you don't. Understand?" Sakura hurried to nod, she understood what was being asked of her, though not why…and she wasn't about to ask. "Good, now begin."

The first problem was easy, the second a bit harder, and the third almost stumped her, but it was the fourth that stopped her in her tracks. She had never seen anything like it before, and so she sat and stared at it. At first glance it had looked like an overly simple addition problem, except that the plus sign was sideways, more like an X than anything else. To make sure she hadn't written it down wrong, Sakura looked back up at the board, but it was the same there too. Glancing down to the problem below it, Sakura saw the same sideways plus sign, only with bigger numbers. It didn't seem like it was an accident, but she wasn't sure.

Slowly Sakura began to raise her hand, but her homeroom teacher was already beside her. "I take it you have finally reached an impasse." Sakura just looked up at her. She had no clue what 'impasse' meant. "Give me your paper," stated the woman bluntly, "I can tell that you have come upon a question you can't do." As Sakura silently handed her paper over, the woman spoke again, "Also, I believe I told you to say something if you came to a problem you couldn't do." Sakura didn't say anything, though she wanted to argue that that had been exactly what she was doing. She was too afraid to argue.

"Hmm…I'm surprised you got to question three…I'm even more surprised you got most of it correct. However," the woman put the paper back down on the desk and pointed to where Sakura had worked out the final part of the equation, "although you added and subtracted the numbers above and below the lines correctly, you cannot add two fractions together if they have different denominators…that's the number, or numbers, below the line." Sakura's eyes widened. If you couldn't add them together, then why was there a plus sign between them? Sakura was afraid to ask, but her teacher read the question in her eyes. "They can be added together, but not as they are. How could you fix them so that they can be added together?"

Sakura's brows came together; she didn't understand what her teacher was asking of her. She had just said the two couldn't be added together and now she was saying there was a way to make them add together if something was done? But how? She had done all the addition and subtraction that could be done. There was nothing left to do. What was so special about these fraction things that they couldn't just be added together? It took a lot of courage, but finally Sakura asked, "What is a fraction? Why do they have to have the same bottom number?"

The older woman's eyes widened and for a moment Sakura wished she hadn't spoken…then the woman smiled the first smile Sakura had ever seen her make, and suddenly Sakura wasn't so afraid anymore. The smile disappeared just as quickly as it had come. "Denominators don't have to be the same all the time, just when two fractions are being put together. The reason for this is because fractions like these represent numbers that are less than one but more than zero." Sakura didn't understand, but her teacher noticed and explained. "You know what half is, right?" Sakura nodded. "Half is a fraction, with one on top and two on the bottom. If you add two halves of something together, such as a pie, you would get one whole pie. Do you understand?"

Instead of nodding, because she wasn't completely sure she understood yet, Sakura wrote out what had just been said, both in numbers and with drawings of two pieces of pie. When she looked at the numbers, she still wanted to add them together so that it would be two over four, but when she looked at the drawing, it made more sense why the bottom numbers were the same. If two halves of pie made one whole pie, then what if two halves, just numbers, added together to make one number. Was it possible that with fractions only the top numbers added together? Then it would be two over two.

Not as hesitantly as before, Sakura asked, "Does two over two make one because they're the same number?" Sakura was rewarded with that brief flash of a smile and she felt her heart soar. It wasn't just that she had gotten her sourpuss of a homeroom teacher to smile that was making her feel lighter than air, though. She had always loved learning, but she had learned early on it was bad to stand out, and so even if she easily understood what she was being taught, she didn't let anyone else know, choosing instead to learn at the same pace as her classmates. But now she was alone with a teacher who was giving her questions that made her have to think hard to answer. It was exhilarating.

Time flew by as Sakura was taught more and more about fractions, what they could and could not do, when they could be used as well as when they should not. Her teacher was just saying that there was a number that couldn't be made into a fraction when suddenly there was screaming in the halls. Sakura's head shot up and the older woman started towards the door to see what was going on, but she didn't make it. Before she got there the door was thrown open, as if by a forceful wind, and sand flew into the room. Sakura closed her eyes as the sand gusted in her direction, fearing that if she didn't the sand would get in her eyes. For a moment Sakura thought a sandstorm must be happening, but she quickly noticed that the sand wasn't hitting her face, though she could feel it on her arms and legs. Then she heard footsteps racing into the room and a voice shouting her name and knew that this was no sandstorm. It was Gaara.

Sakura jerked her eyes open just as Gaara skid to a halt in front of her, his face contorted with emotions Sakura couldn't even begin to discern. Rather than racing to hug her, as such an outburst would have led her to expect, Gaara instead looked at her as his sand swirled around and around, as if he, and perhaps his sand as well, were making sure she was in one piece before he could bring himself to hug her. Slowly Sakura stood up, trying and failing not to giggle as sand passed between her fingers. "That tickles."

Whatever spell Gaara had been under broke at the sound of her voice. The sands fell to the ground as the little red-haired boy threw himself at Sakura, hugging her for all he was worth. Sakura had no clue what was going on, but she hugged him back. "Don't ever do that again," she heard him whisper emotionally, but she didn't know what he was talking about. However, she did recognize the tone of voice he used. She'd heard the same exact thing from her mommy many times before when she had almost gotten hurt. But she wasn't hurt now, nor had she been close to being hurt.

"What's wrong, Gaara?" Sakura asked, trying to pull out of the hug so that she could see Gaara's face.

Gaara hugged her tighter and whispered again, "When you didn't come, I thought I lost you…I thought they had hurt you again…I couldn't find you. You weren't at home or at the hospital, or…"Gaara's voice cracked, "Don't do this again. Don't disappear. You're my only friend. I can't lose you!"

Sakura was shocked. He was this worried just because she hadn't met him at the park when she usually did? "Gaara, I didn't disappear, I got detention. I'm sorry I was late, but I had to stay. If I didn't, I'd be in more trouble."

Gaara pulled back enough to look her in the face, though not enough to let go. "Trouble?" he asked, his voice trembling.

Sakura nodded, "That's why I can't come play until detention is over." Gaara's eyes narrowed, but before he could say anything, they both heard feet coming quickly in their direction. Turning, Sakura saw for the first time that her homeroom teacher had fallen to her knees and was now just sitting there, staring at them.

"That was a quick sandstorm." Sakura's eyes quickly made their way to the doorway and found a familiar face.

"Mommy!" cried Sakura as she let go of Gaara. But she didn't run to the silver haired woman's side as she usually would have, partially because Gaara hadn't let go of her, but also because she saw that her mommy didn't look completely happy. She had a feeling she knew why.

"Sakura," called Haruka, "would you please tell me why you got detention. I thought I taught you better than to cause problems." Sakura moved closer to Gaara, her head and shoulders dropping, not in fear but with a sense of shame.

A throat was cleared, calling everyone's attention to Sakura's homeroom teacher, who was shakily standing up. "She was late to school, Mrs. Kaneko." The older woman's voice was tight, but not with anger, "As with all other students, she was required to stay after as punishment." For some reason Sakura felt like that part was directed at her and Gaara rather than her mommy, though she couldn't think of why that would be the case. When next she spoke, it no longer sounded like it was aimed at anyone but Haruka, "She handled it better than most and now she's free to leave. If you'll excuse me, I must also be going."

Haruka nodded, "I see, I'm glad to hear she behaved." Turning to her adoptive daughter as the homeroom teacher left the room, Haruka stated, "You're not in trouble, Sakura, though you had better not do this again." Gaara nodded his head in full agreement, though for completely different reasons. Sakura looked up at Haruka and the woman smiled, opening her arms wide. This time Gaara let go, allowing Sakura to run and hug Haruka.

"I'm sorry, mommy. I wasn't trying to be bad. Kumiko was leaving and I had to say goodbye to her. I didn't mean to be late. I'm sorry."

"You're forgiven. Now, Sakura, why don't you introduce me to your friend? I hope he didn't get detention too." Sakura pulled out of the hug, shaking her head.

"No, mommy, he doesn't go here. He came looking for me when I didn't meet him at the park." Taking Haruka's hand, Sakura led her over to Gaara. "Mommy, this is my bestest friend in the whole world, Gaara." Unbeknownst to Sakura, Gaara swelled with pride when he heard her address him as such. "Gaara, this is my mommy."

Gaara watched the woman carefully, not knowing what to expect. He'd had very little experience being introduced to people. Usually they already knew who he was and stayed away. However, just like the time he met Sakura's dad, Gaara was surprised by the lack of impact the introduction had on her. "It's nice to meet you, Gaara. I think Shin has mentioned you before. I'm so glad you are such a good friend to my little Sakura. She needs someone to look after her, and I think a friend might be just what the doctor ordered." Gaara blushed, and sidled closer to Sakura shyly.

Before anyone else could speak, Sakura suddenly asked, "Mommy, do you want to come play with us at the park?" Before she could answer, Sakura turned to look at Gaara and asked, "Is Temari and Kankuro there?" Gaara shrugged. They had been there at first, but had disappeared after his sand had started moving restlessly. He didn't know if they would have returned. He wasn't sure he wanted them to, not after they had not only abandoned him, but in a sense, Sakura as well.

Unaware of Gaara's turbulent thoughts, Sakura grabbed his hand and started dragging both him and her mother through the door. "Come on," she called happily, "if we hurry we might find them!"

* * *

Well, that's the next chapter. I actually didn't think this would take up practically a whole chapter, but it did. I guess the rest will be saved for next chapter. I didn't have time to get this edited by another person yet, so if you see anything, please tell me what and where it is.

Thank you to people who are voting. The poll is still up, so if you haven't voted on whether or not Itachi should kill his clan in this story, please do.

Reviews and constructive criticisms won't be sent to detention, flamers will. Now that that's set out for all to see, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Zedax, Bloody Crystal black rose, alphaladywolf (you won't meet Naruto for while yet), Black-footed, (thank you for voting),SnowWolfSpirit, & Lyte the Warrior for reviewing!


	12. Yashamaru's Thoughts and Worries

Disclaimer: If I owned, I really doubt I would have as many issues with updating due to a dead computer.

Chapter 12: Yashamaru's Thoughts and Worries

Yashamaru hurried down the path that led to the park, his heartbeat thundering in his ears. He could only hope that Gaara hadn't done anything disastrous. When Temari had come running into his workroom he knew something was off. Temari wasn't usually as discourteous as to barge in without knocking, but this time she did and it wasn't hard to guess why. When she said that Gaara's sand was rampaging in the park, he hadn't waited to hear any more. If they were lucky, Gaara would get control of his emotions before anyone stumbled upon him. He didn't want to think of what could happen if it were otherwise.

When Yashamaru finally reached the park, it was still. There was no wind, no sand, and most frighteningly, no Gaara. Coming to a halt near the swing set, Yashamaru's mind raced. Where would Gaara have gone? Perhaps he should have waited for Temari to tell him why Gaara had lost control before he left. Oh well, too late now. Yashamaru looked around at the horizons, but nowhere did he see Gaara's tell-tale cloud of sand. Had luck really been with them? Had Gaara regained control of his sand without intervention? Or was it just that the sand wasn't kicking up a storm? He had to find out.

Glancing around the park, Yashamaru caught sight of small fresh footprints heading out of the park. Those had to be Gaara's. Turning in the direction they were heading, Yashamaru again pondered where Gaara could be going. If only he knew what had angered Gaara he could anticipate where he would go and what he would do. But as it was, the cause of his anger was—Yashamaru's eyes widened as a thought hit him. What if it wasn't anger that had set him off but something else, something like fear…but what did he have to fear? Yashamaru could only think of one thing. Gaara could protect himself from just about everything, but as Yashamaru had already seen for himself, Gaara couldn't always protect Sakura…and that frightened Shukaku's host. Would it be enough to set him off? The answer was obvious.

Yashamaru had seen what Gaara had done when he found out Sakura was in the hospital. He hadn't just been angry at what had been done to her, he was frightened for her as well. Both things had worked together to cause Gaara to go on his killing spree. Yashamaru had thought, hoped, that that would be an isolated case. He hadn't wanted to think that Sakura posed a threat to Suna, but now that something similar had happened again because of her, he had to wonder. He would never blame Sakura for Gaara's actions, but might Suna be safer if Sakura wasn't there? He would hate to have to send her away; it would break Youko's heart to lose her niece, but if that made Gaara less likely attack with his sand… Yashamaru shook his head, now was not the time for the past and future, he had to figure out the present.

Now that he knew Sakura had likely started everything, Yashamaru studied the footprints once more. Now he knew where they would be heading. They pointed in the direction of the hospital. Had Sakura been injured? No, there was no signs of a child being injured recently anywhere in the park. Had Gaara thought she was injured? Why would he? Temari hadn't said anything about Sakura being injured…Temari hadn't said anything about Sakura being there at all…and the fact that a second glance around showed no signs of recent footprints smaller than Gaara's proved this fact. The memory of this morning's goodbye session with the Konoha ninja flashed through Yashamaru's head and suddenly everything fell into place.

Gaara had lost control because of Sakura. Not because of anything she had done but rather what she hadn't. She hadn't come. She hadn't come because she was late to school and had to serve detention. She hadn't come, and Gaara had thought that somehow she had ended up in the hospital. But she wouldn't be there. What would he do when he didn't find her? Search elsewhere. Where? He didn't know where all the boy would look, but he could guess where he would find her.

Turning on his heels, Yashamaru started in a different direction than the footprints, heading for where Sakura would be: school. Searching blindly for Gaara wouldn't do him any good; he'd likely never find him unless Gaara's sand gave away his position. Yashamaru knew he would be more likely to…no, he would be _assured_ to find Gaara if he went to the school. He would also be able to find Sakura, hopefully before Gaara did, so that he could protect the girl if Gaara was so far gone he attacked her. Yashamaru started running.

Leaving the park behind, the concerned medic sped down the streets, dodging people left and right as they went about their day. They didn't seem agitated in any way, meaning Gaara hadn't come this way yet. Turning a corner quickly, the man barely avoided a collision. If not for the striking color combinations, Yashamaru might have not given them a second glance as he hurried on to the school. As it was, it was good that he did a double take, for the silver, red, and pink belonged to none other than the people he had been looking for.

There was no flying sand, no screams of fear, no signs that Gaara had lost control at all. In fact, he looked so complacent as he walked hand in hand with Youko's pink haired niece that, had Temari not told him so, he would never have guessed that he had lost control anytime recently. But he had, and Yashamaru knew it. Gaara had been losing control so often that Yashamaru was starting to wonder if the Kazekage wasn't right in thinking that he might be causing more trouble than he was worth. The fact that Gaara's actions in response to Sakura's presence might cause her to leave, possibly taking Youko with her, made him think about it even more. If Gaara couldn't be controlled…might it be better for everyone to—

"Oh, goodness," Yashamaru was so deep in thought that he almost missed what was being said to him by the silver haired woman. "I didn't mean to run into you…" Sakura's mother trailed off as she looked at him. "I think I know you. From the hospital, yes?" Yashamaru nodded, trying to appear relaxed despite the adrenalin still pumping through his body.

Before either adult could mention his name, Sakura jumped into the conversation happily. "Hi Yashamaru!" The brown haired medic smiled at the little girl, but his eyes were quickly drawn to Gaara's as he moved closer to Sakura. Studying the red-head, Yashamaru reevaluated his previous thoughts about never guessing that Gaara had lost control. It's true the boy was now calm, but he was obviously still on high alert. Would he go off again if something went wrong? If so, what would it take? How would he be stopped? Even if they had gotten lucky this time, Gaara probably wouldn't regain control on his own a second time…

Yashamaru nearly gasped when a thought hit him and his gaze flew back to the children's intertwined hands. Could it be that Gaara hadn't stopped on his own but rather—he didn't get to finish the thought because Sakura started speaking again, "Are you all right, Yashamaru? You're breathing hard?" As soon as he assured her that he was fine she asked, "Then are you here to take Gaara somewhere?" In front of Yashamaru's eyes, but not in front of Sakura's or her mother's, he noted, complacent Gaara disappeared. The boy stiffened, his eyes narrowing into a glare that someday would make one's blood freeze. As it was, it almost made the older man take a step back. Gaara's message was clear to him. He would not be leaving Sakura's side.

Thankfully, before the sand started moving or anything else disastrous happened, Sakura continued, "If he has to go, I guess he has to go, but we only just met up. We haven't gotten to play yet today." The pink haired girl started pouting cutely, as he'd seen Temari do on occasion when she was trying to get something she wanted. "Please say he can stay and play!"

* * *

Yashamaru leaned against a tree as he watched the children and Haruka play tag. Temari, who had apparently reached the park just before them, was currently It. Yashamaru followed her movements, but knew what she was going to do long before she did it. In fact, he had already caught onto a pattern in their play. Gaara was closest to Temari but she avoided him and headed straight for Sakura. Once she was It, Sakura went after anyone and everyone, but it was Gaara she eventually got. Gaara ignored Temari all together as he went after Sakura and her mother. It was Sakura he caught and who then went on to catch Temari who then caught Sakura's mother whom, he noted, allowed herself to be caught.

As the silver haired woman chased after her daughter Yashamaru couldn't help but frown. It was obvious that there was tension between Temari and Gaara and he wasn't sure whether or not he liked the pattern that was emerging in the face of it. The game was almost entirely predictable and not because there were only four people playing. Gaara would only choose Sakura as It, though he would chase Sakura's mother too. Temari he ignored, and in return she did everything in her power to not get near him, even when she was It. This meant that, unless Haruka let herself be caught, it would be Sakura who would become It again. Sakura was most likely then to catch Gaara which would start the entire thing over again.

The pattern was clear: Sakura had become the middleman. Temari was evidently still afraid that Gaara would snap and Gaara was angry with her, perhaps because he noticed her fear. The one thing they had in common was Sakura, who, though completely oblivious to her position, seemed to love being It all the time and thus wasn't doing anything to mend their relationship. As Yashamaru continued to watch the plotted game of tag his thoughts returned to the dilemma at hand.

Sakura was becoming too entangled with Gaara's position as Shukaku's host. Not only could she cause and quell his outbursts, but she was already starting to become integral to those around him as a way to interact with him indirectly. It wasn't just Temari. He'd heard the girl whom he and Sakura had saved from Gaara's rampage talking to her friends about how Sakura was able to control the demon that was Gaara. Ever since, he'd been hearing whispers about Sakura and Gaara. Some felt that she would be the key to controlling him but others had noticed that Sakura was the cause of Gaara losing control. Thus, in Yashamaru's mind, it all came down to one fundamental question:

Was it possible that Sakura's presence could help more than it hurt?

Yashamaru had witnessed in the past Sakura causing Gaara to lose control of his sand, but just as often he'd seen her stop him too. What if something happened, though, something not Sakura related? Would Sakura still be able to stop Gaara? If so, his earlier thoughts about Suna being safer if Sakura was elsewhere would be deemed completely insane. But how could he find out for sure?

Yashamaru sighed, the answer was clear. He'd have to set up a situation where Gaara would lose control and only later introduce Sakura to see if she could stop him. But he'd have to be completely in control of the situation, which, with unpredictable Gaara, would be nearly impossible. There were so many variables, even excluding Gaara's instability. For instance, he would have to have a way to keep Sakura safe if she wasn't able to calm him, and he'd also have to have a plan on how he'd stop Gaara in the case of Sakura's failure. These, of course, wouldn't even come into play if he couldn't come up with a foolproof plan that would cause Gaara to lose control exactly when he wanted him to in such a way that no innocent villagers would be put in danger.

The problem with this plan of action, though, was that it would be nearly impossible to carry out. There really were too many possible outcomes to be sure of all of them. Hopefully, though, if he took his time coming up with the details he'd be able to plan for nearly everything. That would have to be enough. If anything unforeseen happened, he'd just have to wing it.

Yashamaru was thrown out of his thoughts as Sakura ran his way, Temari close on her heels. The pink haired girl tried to worm her way between him and the tree he was leaning against, likely planning on using him as a meat shield. Before Sakura made it very far, though, Temari tripped and skid along the ground. When she sat up, her eyes were shiny with unshed tears. Pushing away from the tree, Yashamaru went to her. His hand gently landed on her head as he stated calmly, "It's just skinned. You're fine."

At the same moment Sakura flung herself beside Temari, crying, "Don't cry! I'll make it better." She then proceeded to pat Temari's knee, "Pain, pain, go away! Come again no other day!" Temari wasn't the only one that got a smile out of, Yashamaru just hid his better.

Temari swiped at her face, saying gruffly, "I'm not crying…"She might have convinced Sakura had not a tear escaped her attempt to clear her face.

Sakura's response almost made Yashamrau laugh, "And if Kankuro were here, he'd call you a liar."

Temari scoffed, wiping at her face again, "No, if he were here, he'd be dancing circles around me, laughing." Standing up carefully, she added, "Thankfully, he's not."

Sakura tilted her head as she asked, "Speaking of Kankuro, where is he?"

Temari shrugged. "Earlier we ran into the guy who has been teaching him all those annoying puppet tricks. He mentioned something about Chakra and no strings and off Kankuro went. "

Yashamaru nodded, "Ah, yes, that would make sense. Akai informed me just the other day that he thought Kankuro had potential as a future puppet master—said he'd start showing him a few things even though he's got a long way to go before he's a ninja." To Yashamru's surprise, Sakura slowly raised her hand as if she were in class. The medic couldn't help but smile at the small, pink haired girl "Yes, Sakura?"

The hand was returned to her side as she asked, "What does Chakra, puppet masters, and ninja have to do with each other…and Kankuro?"

Yashamaru patted her head. "That's a very good question. To put it simply, puppet masters are ninja who have learned how to move puppets with Chakra. As to how they relate to Kankuro, though he hasn't learned much in way of Chakra control yet, he does seem to have an affinity for puppets and Akai thinks it would be good to start teaching him early…" Yashamaru would have said more, but he noticed that Sakura's face was scrunched up with confusion. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I forget that you might not understand my explanation. I suppose I should clarify what Chakra is before I get ahead of myself. Chakra is—" Sakura was shaking her head.

Slowly, as if expecting him to get angry at any moment, Sakura said, "I know about Chakra. Kirsche said it's the balancing of energy inside you…or something like that." Pausing briefly, she moved closer to Gaara who had come to stand beside her before continuing, "I don't understand, though, why Kankuro is learning how to be a ninja. Temari said you can't go to ninja school until you're seven."

Yashamaru was taken aback, though when he thought about it, it shouldn't have been surprising that Kirsche would be teaching Sakura about Chakra since people with Kekkei Genkai, whether they're ninja or not, need to be able to properly use Chakra. Perhaps, though, the true source of his surprise was that Sakura didn't understand Kankuro's position in life. Before he could think of anything to say, Temari answered Sakura's question.

"Sakura, our dad's the Kazekage. Even if we didn't want to—we do, by the way—but even if we didn't, we've been raised to be ninja. I guess you could say it's one of those special situations I was telling you about before. We're exceptions to the rule." Yashamaru noted that she said this from the side of Sakura that Gaara wasn't on. The game might be over, but obviously the pattern was still holding strong.

Sakura, oblivious to Temari's evasive behavior, started pouting. "That's not fair!" From here, Yashamaru expected Sakura to say something about how their father being the Kazekage shouldn't dictate their plans for their future. It was the kind of statement that, though naïve, would fit Sakura's personality, so he was rather surprised with what she said next instead.

"Why can you be a ninja now and I can't? It'll be forever until I'm seven!" Temari made some remark to this, but Yashamaru didn't hear it. His mind was in upheaval. Since when had Sakura wanted to be a ninja? It didn't fit her personality at all. Not only that, but it would be too dangerous for her—not that it wasn't dangerous for everyone else, but it wasn't just the danger to her person that he was concerned for. Rather, his thoughts were first with Youko, whose heart would be broken if anything ever happened to Sakura, and then they shifted to Gaara. He wasn't even sure how his nephew would react, but he was certain it wouldn't be favorable.

Sakura's voice drifted into Yashamaru's thoughts as she disclaimed loudly, "I will too be a ninja, mommy, even if I wasn't born here!" Something clicked in Yashamaru's head at this, relaxing his fears. No matter what Sakura wanted, the likelihood of her being accepted into the ninja academy was almost nonexistent. After all, the head of the academy was well known for her dislike of foreigners—she would never allow Sakura in and it was unlikely that Sakura would obtain a private tutor like his niece and nephews had. So, unless Sakura somehow managed to pass the Genin test without proper schooling—which was practically impossible—there would be nothing to worry about.

He refused to think about what might happen if she did pass.

* * *

That's the end of this chapter from Yashamaru's POV. I hope you liked it and found it informative. There's quite a bit of foreshadowing in this chapter, much of which is even blatantly obvious, so I hope people are thinking on what path this story is going to take.

Thank you to everyone who voted. I feel that I have enough votes to now decide for sure on the path this World will take. When it gets to that point in the story, there will be a chapter that addresses the subject of the poll.

I apologize for the long wait on the update, but my computer died (and is still dead, by the way), interfering greatly with the whole writing process. I can't say when the next chapter will be written since it's looking like I won't have a computer for at least two more weeks if not more—and obviously, little public computer time means little time to type the chapter…but it will come eventually!

I love reviews and accept constructive criticism, however flames are neither liked nor accepted, so don't even try it. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Lyte the Warrior, Yuuki-Hime 2097, Jasmin Liertha (thanks for catching that, it's fixed), Cindy Medeiros, Black-footed, Hullop, annarolls (You certainly are on the right path of thinking. As to Kirshe's past and possible future, you'll find out eventually), & Snow Lily RandomMuch for reviewing!


	13. Kirsche's Riddle

Disclaimer: Dead computers wouldn't stop real owners.

Chapter 13: Kirsche's Riddle

Kirsche arrived at the park at the same time she always did to pick Sakura up only to find that Haruka had already started preparing the girl to leave. After only a few more minutes of goodbyes, the three of them were on their way, Sakura in the middle, holding both women's hands. The walk began in silence, but by the time they got halfway home, Sakura was tugging on Kirsche's hand, asking nonstop questions.

"So what are we going to do today? Are you going to tell me more about Time Walking—you said I was going to be a Time Walker, didn't you?" Kirsche barely got a nod in before Sakura was off again, "And what about that Chakra thing? We talked about that today, Temari and I, and Yashamaru said ninja use Chakra and that Kankuro is going to learn how to move puppets with it and be a ninja! I want to be a ninja too. Do you think if—"

Haruka broke into the monolog, "Sakura!" The Silver haired woman's eyebrows were raised, her free hand going to her hip as she continued incredulously, "I've told you before, one question at a time, and no, you won't be able to be a ninja." Sakura opened her mouth to argue, but Haruka cut her off kindly, "Sakura, please understand, this is Suna, not Konoha. We weren't born in Suna, and to many people here that's the main thing needed to be allowed to do anything, especially joining the ninja academy…" Trailing off, Haruka assessed the stubborn tilt to Sakura's chin and her stuck out lip, then muttered more to herself than to either of the pink haired girls, "…and, she's not listening to a word I say."

Sakura shook her head no, then turned to Kirsche and asked, "Do you think what you're going to teach me about Chakra could help me be a ninja?" Haruka rolled her eyes while Kirsche gave the child a small smile.

"That depends on you." Kirsche answered honestly as they neared Youko's home, "Most Hoshi wouldn't even think about being a ninja, they're taught from a young age that violence is never the answer, but most others with Kekkei Genkai do become ninja. I can't say whether they will let you join the academy here, but it is true that what you will be learning can be directed that way." Sakura cheered. Dropping the hands she was holding to jump in the air with joy, Sakura then rushed inside to where Youko had already set out dinner. The adults followed at a more reasonable pace, Haruka shaking her head at her daughter's silliness.

Once everyone had eaten and Sakura and Youko were cleaning up, Haruka turned to Kirsche and said, "I'm sorry I haven't spent much time with you and Sakura lately. I've been searching for a job, for all the good it's done me…" Haruka shook her head before continuing, "Would you mind if I sat in on your lessons tonight?" Kirsche didn't answer, her tiny pupils drilling into Haruka's eyes. Flustered, Haruka quickly added, "I understand that there are probably things you don't want me to know, Clan secrets and the like, but Sakura is my daughter, even if not by blood, and…"

One side of Kirsche's lips twisted upward, cutting off Haruka without words and making the woman blush as she realized it wasn't only Sakura who got off on monologs. Kirsche broke the new-found silence after taking a sip of tea, "You are welcome tonight and most other nights." Kirsche nodded her head at Youko before adding for Haruka's ears only, "All I ask is that you keep what you learn to yourself…" another sip was taken before Kirsche added, "…and that if I ask something of you while you're there, such as a moment alone to explain something, that you comply."

Haruka nodded numbly, surprised that it had been that easy to get an affirmative. Youko had told her she had asked to sit in on these lessons before and that Kirsche had refused, stating clan secrets as the reason. The shock didn't fully wear off until she and Sakura were following Kirsch to the backyard. Once there, Haruka couldn't help but ask, "Why are you allowing me to be here and not Youko?"

"Because I know it is safe. You won't interfere with what Sakura is to learn."

"Youko wouldn't try to interfere either."

Kirsche shook her head, a calm smile on her face, "It might not be her initial intent, but she would."

"You can't know that for sure." Haruka stated, crossing her arms defensively.

To everyone's surprise, Sakura chirped in gleefully, "Yes she can! She can see the future!" Haruka's eyes flew wide open; Kirsche winced.

Haruka stared at Kirsche disbelievingly as the young woman sighed, "And that's one of the things I'd rather few people knew…Sakura—" Haruka interrupted.

"You're joking. No one can see the future."

Kirsche's lip twitched into a smile again, "Technically it's _futures_, and yes, it is possible for some of the Hoshi clan, myself included. One day Sakura will be able to as well."

Haruka sat down hard, sending a small cloud of dust into the air. She just couldn't believe it, though, as Kirsche reminded Sakura about something she called the Laws of Time, it became clear that this wasn't a joke. Kirsche was serious, but how could it be possible?

Haruka didn't even notice she had spoken aloud until Kirsche answered her, "It's no more impossible than the abilities given to those with the Byakugan or the Sharingan. It's just different."

Had Haruka not been so flustered she might have laughed at her own disbelief, but as it was, all she could think to say was, "But that's too much power for any one person to have." Suddenly Kirsche's whole disposition drooped; though her smile stayed it place, it looked a whole lot sadder than Haruka had ever seen it before. She was beginning to regret her words, wishing she could take them back, when Kirsche spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Seeing future events doesn't make one all-powerful. It doesn't give all the answers. It doesn't fix everything…and it certainly doesn't always lead one to happiness." Haruka could hear the pain in Kirsche's voice, and for the first time, she wondered what all Kirsche might have had to leave behind to come find Sakura. She was about to try to say something to comfort the young woman before her—the _very_ young woman, now that she thought about it—when Kirsche continued what she had been saying before. Haruka made a mental note to ask about it later.

"There are so many possible futures…" said Kirsche softly, "it can be worse than a maze… they don't always make sense…and they're always changing. Every single thing that any living being does can change the direction things are going, and it's my job to keep things in check…" Kirsche shook her head, her smile becoming queer. "But that's not important. The point is that this ability to see things yet to come isn't as powerful a tool as you might think. At its best, it only gives the Hoshi an edge, a hint as to what _could_ happen. I've known tacticians to better understand the future…where the Hoshi see possibilities, tacticians see probabilities. And in the end, it's probabilities that make or break situations." Kirsche quickly turned to Sakura, catching both her and Haruka off guard. "Pop quiz: in what situation would looking into the future be more reliable than tacticians' plans?"

Sakura's eyes widened a moment in surprise, then they narrowed as she thought, and finally they gleamed when she came up with her answer. "When there isn't time to think!" Kirsche nodded, but didn't say anything, waiting for Sakura to extrapolate. "You said yesterday," Sakura began slowly, reciting from memory, "that once a deciding action is made the future is set, so there would only be one future, but by then the future becomes the present…this is the third law of time," Sakura bounced happily in place, knowing from the praising smile on Kirsche's face that she was on the right track, "So, if a choice is made suddenly, then the future would tell you right away, but the tac—ta—uh, the smart people wouldn't know because they wouldn't have the time to think about it and figure it out!"

"You are correct; now, here's a riddle for you:" Kirsche said, then smiled at Sakura, a tricky smile that stated quite clearly she was going to try to stump the girl, "If tacticians, or smart people as you call them, are usually able to predict the path the future will take and the Hoshi are able to predict those paths that tacticians cannot react to in time, then what could possibly be unpredictable to both?"

Sakura stared into the distance, rubbed her head, tapped her feet, thought aloud, got up and paced, sat back down and eventually flopped onto her back, exclaiming, "I don't know!" Kirsche's smile revealed that she had expected that response. Haruka couldn't help but smile as well, and she knew that her smile was very similar to Kirsche's. As soon as she had heard the riddle, she hadn't expected the child to get it. Haruka's smile widened as Sakura rolled to her stomach and asked cutely, "How about a hint?"

Haruka caught the glint in Kirsche's eyes before she closed them and smiled widely, "I'll only give you one: it has to do with what you just mentioned earlier."

After a brief pause, Sakura levered herself up onto her elbows and asked, "You mean the third law?" Kirsche nodded. "Hmm…" Sakura pushed herself up into a sitting position and repeated the law again to herself, "…the future is not set until the deciding action is made…um…I have a question."

Kirsche's closed-eyed smile didn't change at all as she motioned for Sakura to ask her question, but when the child did, Haruka noticed that the young woman's aura was that of someone who has accomplished their goal. Strange, considering the question was merely for the definition of a word. Wondering what was so monumental about this particular question, Haruka couldn't help but be drawn into Kirsche's explanation.

"A deciding action commonly refers to an action that affects, or decides, the outcome of a situation. In a sense, it even causes the outcome. For instance, when you've seen that you shoe is untied and stop so that you can bend down and retie it."

Kirsche paused, and in that moment Sakura asked, "So, stopping would be the deciding action?" Kirsche opened her eyes, but didn't answer. To fill the silence, Sakura continued on restlessly, "Or would it be the bending down to retie it?" More silence. Sakura's foot started bouncing. "Could it be the act of tying the strings?" Still no answer came, causing Sakura to start pulling on her hair as she became more and more anxious for an answer. If Haruka hadn't been concentrating so hard on what had been said so far, she might have found the situation funny.

Suddenly Sakura exclaimed, "Wait! It's all of them, isn't it?" Kirsche didn't answer, but one eyebrow rose up. This was enough to encourage Sakura, "I'm right, aren't I? Just because you do any one of those things doesn't mean you'll do the rest, right? Just stopping won't make you bend down to your shoe, and just getting to your shoe doesn't mean you'll tie it." Worry was creeping into the child's voice as Kirsche never once made a move to agree with what Sakura was saying, "It's only after you're tying it that it will for sure be tied, but if you didn't do the other two then you wouldn't be tying it…right?" As Sakura stared nervously at Kirsche, it occurred to Haruka why Kirsche wasn't saying anything.

Tears started to well in Sakura's eyes as the silence continued. Before they fell, Haruka found herself asking, "Does it have anything to do with having seen that the shoe was untied in the first place?" Kirsche's eyes met hers, their tiny pupils almost bouncing in their sea of blue. That was all the answer she was going to get though, and she knew it as Kirsche continued to watch her silently.

Haruka looked down at her lap as she continued to think. Kirsche's bouncing eyes told her that she was on the right path, but Haruka knew that she must be overlooking something, but what? Between her and Sakura they had already used up everything that had been mentioned in Kirsche's supposition about seeing the untied shoe. Besides that, what could this have to do with the original riddle about the unpredictable? It had to have something to do with it, or else Kirsche wouldn't have decided to make such a big fuss about the question in the first place…

Haruka paled, her eyes flying towards Kirsche. The young Hoshi was staring at her with that same smile on her face. She had never looked away. Why? Because she knew Haruka would figure it out. Her silences and her steady gaze had been a hint to her—a hint that Haruka now had caught upon. "But…" Haruka found herself whispering, "that's not an action…not really…"

Sakura heard her. "What's not an action, mommy?"

Haruka shook her head, patting Sakura on the shoulder before turning back to Kirsche. "The deciding action was when the person looked at their shoe," Haruka paused, but as she expected, Kirsche remained silent, so she continued, "the person decided to look at their shoe, whether due to chance or conscious thought, and that is what led to them tying their shoe."

Kirsche's eyes lit with an inner light as she immediately stated happily, "Bingo, you have discerned a deciding action." Haruka's eyebrows drew together, but it was Sakura who broke the silence.

"It was a trick question!" Surprised, Haruka looked at Sakura, wondering if she had caught what Haruka had. Sakura's next statement dispelled Haruka's hope that she had, "There's more than one answer, isn't there!" For once, Sakura's tone was not that of a question. She was sure of her statement, and she felt like explaining why, "You would have called it _the_ deciding action if it was the only one! But you didn't! That means there's another one! Hopefully it's only one…" Haruka was startled by Sakura's reasoning. She hadn't thought about it before, but the girl was right about Kirsche, and knowing that, she had a pretty good idea as to what the second deciding action might be.

"You're right, Sakura," Haruka stated, her eyes focusing on Kirsche, "it is a trick question. Not only does it have two answers, neither answer can really be called an action." Kirsche tilted her head to the side, her smile becoming warmer as she waited to hear what else Haruka had to say. "After all, although the actions themselves are important, the actions would never have happened if not for two decisions: deciding to look in the direction of the shoe and deciding to do something about it." Kirsche slowly started clapping.

"You are right. All the other actions mentioned were important actions, but they decided nothing. If something had interfered at any point in that scenario, so long as those two conditions were met, the end result would still be the shoe being tied."

"Then why is it called a deciding _action_?" complained Sakura, unintentionally voicing Haruka's thoughts.

"Because," began Kirsche, "the laws come from a translation of the Ancient language. In its original form, the word for action more directly translates into _that which leads to an act or event_."

Sakura's eyes widened. "So," she began carefully, "in other words, a deciding action is when you decide to do something that makes something happen?" Kirsche nodded, causing Sakura to jump to her feet. "Then I think I know the answer! The one thing that nobody can predict is love, because, as I've heard daddy say, you can't decide who to love!"

Once again, Kirsche started clapping. "Congratulations, Sakura. I knew one hint from me would be enough for you to figure out such a difficult riddle." Haruka's eyebrows drew even closer together as she analyzed Kirsche's words, but Sakura didn't notice anything about them, being too busy jumping in joy. "Now, Sakura," continued Kirsche as Haruka watched her intently, "I want you to do the breathing exercise I've been teaching you, the one to help you get a feel for your Chakra." Sakura deflated, complaining about how boring it would be, but sat down anyhow as Kirsche added, "Your mom and I will step inside for a bit, so there should be no distractions." Haruka was shocked at the decision, but didn't mind complying.

As soon as the door to outside closed behind them, Haruka asked the questions she had been pondering for a while now, "Why did you lie about giving only one hint. You're always careful about what you say, so I know it was deliberate. In the same way I know you led us to the riddle's answer with those hints on purpose. But why? To what purpose?"

Kirsche smiled reassuringly, "I didn't lie. I only gave Sakura one hint…you gave her the rest." Haruka paled as the truth sank in. It was true, Kirsche had given many hints, but only one was given to Sakura, the rest were for her. "As to why I went the long way in answering, rather than immediately explain the translation issue, was so that both Sakura and you will gain insight for the future."

Cautiously Haruka asked, "What kind of insight?"

"Sakura has to learn to see that nothing is as clear as it seems and that there are truths within truths…and you needed to know the depths of the third law."

Haruka gulped, not liking where this could be going. "Why?"

Kirsche smiled sadly, "Because it might be the difference between a good action…and a deadly decision."

"You planed this, didn't you?" Haruka asked irritably, "You wanted me to ask so that you could warn me…no, so that I'd _listen_ to your warning…" Haruka trailed off as Kirsche just continued smiling without breaking eye contact. The silver haired woman couldn't really explain it, but deep within her she felt like Kirsche had planned this whole evening, and she wasn't sure she liked it. At the same time, though, the way Kirsche wasn't reacting to her outburst in an outraged manner as most people would have…somehow it lessened her anger with Kirsche, though at the same time it cemented the idea that she had had everything planed out. Knowing the young woman could see the future didn't help.

Fearful of the answer, Haruka asked, "How much of the future do you know?"

Kirsche grinned, "Only as much as a tactician might."

Haruka had been afraid of that.

* * *

Dead computers and five jobs—six if you count school, really aren't conductive to personal writing. I'm still working on the story, but for now time is of the essence. It will be at least another month before the next chapter is ready, but it will come.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are accepted, flamers will be put out. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: general zargon, Black-footed, Snow Lily RandomMuch, Amara-nii chan, Cindy Medeiros, & Star Light for reviewing!


	14. Crunch Time

Disclaimer: I own Naruto as much as I own the world…

Chapter 14: Crunch Time

Many weeks passed by without anything more interesting happening than new lessons and Kankuro's attempts to move a puppet without strings. It was fun to watch the six-year-old lose his temper every time he failed to move the puppet, but unlike Temari, who wanted him to keep failing for her own entertainment, Sakura was cheering him on. As of yet, she still hadn't seen the puppet move without strings and was starting to think that it might have been a joke. She hoped it wasn't, though, since it sounded interesting.

One morning when there was no school Sakura hurried over to the park where she usually met Gaara and his siblings. Of the three, only Kankuro was there, but he wasn't alone. Three other boys she recognized from school were with him, though he was the youngest, and before them sat a balding, middle-aged man. He was speaking to the boys gruffly, but Sakura didn't hear a word, her attention was entirely focused on the tiny wooden person that was, by all appearances, running back and forth of its own accord, as if the puppet were alive. It was amazing.

The older man's back was turned to Sakura, but she could see his fingers moving as his hands shifted from side to side and, after a few moments, it began to appear to Sakura that the way his fingers moved had something to do with the puppet. It wasn't until the puppet suddenly ceased moving that Sakura realized that silence had fallen over the group. Tearing her eyes from the puppet, Sakura saw that one of the older boys was pointing at her. Everyone else was staring. Sakura shrank back, first out of habit and then further in fear as the older man, who was now facing her, stood up, his face livid.

"What are you doing here?" barked the potbellied man as he loomed towards Sakura, "Spying?" Sakura scuttled backwards, shaking her head no furiously. This only seemed to anger the man more. "Lying chit—all you outsiders are the same." Sakura stumbled, landing on her behind, but she didn't stay that way for long. The angry man grabbed Sakura's arm, dragging her up as he shouted, "Which rat nest did you crawl out of?" Tears welled in Sakura's eyes as the man squeeze her arm—it was the same one that had recently been broken. "Who you selling secrets to, imp?"

The tears fell as Sakura cried, "I-I'm not—" The man shook her harshly, calling her a liar once more. Sakura tried again, "I was just looking for my friends—" This time Sakura bit her tongue when the man shook her.

"Deceitful winch! What upright Suna citizen would fraternize with the enemy?" Sakura sent a desperate glance past the man towards Kankuro, expecting him to stand up for her, but he didn't. He wouldn't even meet her eyes. Instead he huddled together with the older boys as they watched her be mistreated. As she was shaken again it became apparent that although each of the boys knew she was a citizen here now, not a one of them would speak up. She wasn't allowed time to ponder why because with the next violent jerk of her body, Sakura tasted blood. No one was going to save her.

Reaching up weakly, Sakura tried to pry the man's fingers away from her arm, but to no avail. She tried to beg him to stop but she nearly choked on her own blood and her tongue was swollen from having been bitten too many times. She tried to kick the evil man, but her arm being twisted back on itself stopped her in her tracks. She screamed—whether in pain, anger, or fear, she didn't know. The balding man twisted her arm even more, demanding the same things he had been before, but this time Sakura could only distinguish his voice, not his words, as pain overcame her senses. He was breaking her arm. Again.

As stars burst before her eyes there was only one thing Sakura could think of, and it almost made her laugh despite her pain. She couldn't even begin to understand why, as the man was breaking her arm, all she could focus on was the idea that once it healed again it would be stronger. Perhaps she didn't want to focus on anything else. If she did, she might have realized that this man wasn't planning on her ever healing. His plans were more finite than that.

Sakura saw a cruel grin on her attackers face through bursts of light and pain. The thought again: the bone will heal and be stronger. More pain. It will heal and be stronger. A terrible cracking sound. The man grinning. Pressure on her throat. Heal and be stronger. The man turns pale. Heal…be stronger. Falling…but not hitting the ground. Heal and be stronger. A voice crying out her name. It will heal and be stronger. A scream…many screams—

Sakura blinked away the darts of light, struggling to sit up. Around her was chaos. Boys were running in every direction, screaming as sand chased them, blocking off every escape route. It didn't hurt them, but they still ran in terror. A loud crash made Sakura jerk around. Instead of the cause of the sound, Sakura found pain and a wall of sand… looking down to the source of the wall, Sakura saw that what she was resting on was entirely made of sand. Another clash permeated the air. Sakura hurried to escape the sand bowl that had saved her from falling earlier.

As she clambered out of the opening in the sand, the potbellied man flew right past her, hitting the ground with a thud. He was soon back on his feet, a kunai in each hand as a throng of sand hurtled towards him. As he dodged, Sakura stumbled, nearly falling. The reason she didn't was because the sand that had saved her earlier moved to catch her again. The world swam as her arm hit the sand, and by the time it righted itself, she could see Gaara's back as his sand swirled around him, knocking aside the kunai that the balding man had thrown.

Sakura's eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat as she realized what must have happened. Gaara had lost control of his sand again. Tears fell out of her eyes with this realization, for she knew how much it hurt him to lose control and yet, because she hadn't been able to protect herself, he was now in the process of hurting himself…all because of her. Watching as the puppet man and Gaara continued to fight, moving all around in a cloud of sand, Sakura knew what she had to do. She had to stop Gaara. If she didn't, his sand would hurt the man and that would hurt Gaara.

* * *

Haruka walked beside Kirsche silently on the way back from escorting Youko to her shift at the hospital. Over the past weeks, Haruka had tried to spend as much of her free time as she could with Kirsche, and having done so, she had come to learn more about the mysterious woman. It wasn't so much that Kirsche had divulged much more information about herself, though from time to time Haruka was able to get a nugget of history out of the pink haired young woman; rather it was that Haruka had observed Kirsche unobtrusively and had discovered a story that Kirsche wouldn't or couldn't tell. The story might be lacking exact details, but Haruka could fill in the gaps well enough with what she already knew to be true.

For one, Haruka now knew that Kirsche had given up a lot in order to be able to come help Sakura. From the way the young woman shied away from the topic of her family, and the way she reacted around those who mentioned different aspects of family life, Haruka had been able to piece together that that she was not on good terms with her father and that her mother was most likely dead, though it sounded as if she had gotten to know her before she died. Haruka also concluded that Kirsche had left behind younger siblings and perhaps a boyfriend or fiancé in order to search out Sakura.

Haruka glanced over at the ever smiling young woman as she continued to review what she had gathered from observing her. Kirsche never spoke about missing her family—indeed, she hardly spoke of them at all—but Haruka knew that she did miss them; she could see it in the way a shadow would sometimes be cast over the young woman's eyes when a family strode by, looking peaceful and content. She also noticed that those where the times when Kirsche would smile her hardest and brightest, as if, pretending that she wasn't being reminded of a life left behind, would make it so.

Haruka had never asked outright, but she had a feeling that Kirsche would be with them for a long time, helping Sakura develop her birthright. It wasn't just that she knew it would probably take years for Sakura to master her Kekkei Genkai; she also could tell that Kirsche wouldn't be returning to where she came from for a while the same way she could tell that she had left a loving family behind. Haruka doubted that Kirsche would look so sad and forlorn about having been separated if she expected to be reunited soon enough anyhow.

But then again, there were things about Kirsche that Haruka just couldn't figure out no matter how much she thought about it. Perhaps Kirsche's family situation would continue to stump her just as the reason for Kirsche's oh-so careful choice in words did. After all, Haruka could come up with many reasons for the anomaly in Kirsche's speech patterns, such as an ingrained fear of lying, but there was no way to know for sure, and even if she were to ask, she knew Kirsche would twist her words into a truthful response that would yet leave the question unanswered. Asking about Kirsche's history would have the same results, Haruka knew, but perhaps Kirsche would be willing to answer a question about the future. Worth a try.

"Kirsche, how long do you think it will take Sakura to master her Kekkei Genkai?" Before the pink haired woman could say something about mastery taking a lifetime, Haruka added, "I mean how long will she continue her daily studies with you? Not that I'm trying to get rid of you or anything, but surely you want to go back home eventually, and I was just wondering…" Haruka shook her head as Kirsche raised one eyebrow. She really needed to work on stopping those monologs before they got started.

Kirsche laughed lightly, then answered with a grin, "I can't give you an exact time for anything. Much depends on Sakura and her progress. I can only tell you the rough plan of things…but it's probably better for you to know anyway." Kirsche shook her head ruefully before continuing. "I'm trying to teach Sakura as much as I can about her Kekkei Genkai before I help her to awaken it, but it must be awoken soon."

"Why?" Haruka gasped out, not even thinking about interrupting Kirsche, "She's only five. Even if she is smart for her age, that's too young."

To Haruka's surprise, Kirsche nodded and answered while looking up at the sky, "I know, but time demands it of her. That is why I shall help her through the trials she will face during her awakening." Shaking her head, Kirsche met Haruka's eyes, "Normally the process of awakening is done alone, but with her being so young as well as a few other things, I have decided that I shall guide her."

Alone… Guide her… Haruka felt as if warning lights were going off in her head. "You're taking her away!" she accused as her heart swelled with fear and love for Sakura. "You promised you'd not take her away when—"

"And my promise still stands." Kirsche interrupted, throwing the silver haired woman off guard. "I will not take Sakura away from Suna." And there was that oh-so specific word choice again. Haruka's eyes narrowed.

"So you **are** taking her somewhere, just within Suna, is that it?" That sad look came over Kirsche's face again despite her still present smile and in that instant Haruka felt part of her anger slipping away. That was the face Kirsche made when she was thinking about things she couldn't change…and it looked exactly like the face Sakura made when she was pretending she wasn't sad. Not for the first time, Haruka wondered just how closely Kirsche was related to Sakura.

Haruka was torn from these thoughts as Kirsche suddenly stiffened, the blues of her eye's abruptly being jerked away from their pin-prick pupils as if by an invisible fishing hook. Kirsche's head whipped left, following the path the blues of her eyes had taken, though the blue portion now seemed to be swimming anywhere and everywhere except where they were supposed to be. Kirsche went pale. Haruka felt her heart clinch with worry as the pink haired woman wobbled out "But how—it's not—it couldn't—Why now?" as if she were speaking to a person who wasn't there. Before she knew what she had done, Haruka abandoned what had been left of her anger and laid her hand on Kirsche's arm, asking what was wrong.

Kirsche's eyes snapped back together and a string of cuss-words fell out of her mouth, almost making Haruka jump, her hands clinching with the outburst. But the words weren't directed at her. That was obvious when Kirsche started running in the direction her eyes had flown to, as if she had entirely forgotten about Haruka. Of course, it was impossible for Kirsche to forget the person who had grabbed onto her sleeve, not when that person was slowing her down, but she didn't bother wasting time trying to make Haruka let go either. When Kirsche finally spoke, she sounded both distressed and distracted.

"We have to hurry…it shouldn't have happened…not today…not even for a week…" It was as if Kirsche were trying to explain to herself why she was so surprised as much as she was trying to explain to Haruka. What Kirsche was so worked up about, though, Haruka had no clue, but she didn't need one. As they practically flew towards the park where Sakura loved to play, what was causing Kirsche distress became evident; what it caused Haruka, though, was not distress but out-right panic. As she saw the sand hurtling through the air right at her little girl, Haruka opened her mouth to scream only to have a hand slapped across it.

"Don't," Kirsche whispered in her ear as she tugged her behind a tree, one hand still over Haruka's mouth, "We're too late to stop it."

Haruka struggled to free herself, but to no avail. How could such a slender young woman be this strong? Finally she gave up escaping just as Kirsche removed the hand over her mouth. Vehemently she whispered, "You're just going to sit here and let Sakura die?"

Just as quietly, but without anger, Kirsche responded, "No, but I'm not going to wade in there and get her hurt even more." Haruka made to argue, but Kirsche didn't let her get a word in, "If we interfere now, Sakura could be wounded for life. I was planning on helping her through this situation—and before you ask, yes, it was bound to happen eventually, but not today." As Haruka watched, Kirsche's eyes went dark with emotion, "That's the problem with relying too much on what could happen in the futures…even probabilities can be misleading. That she would be noticed today was all but impossible, a one in infinity chance." The chuckle and grin that followed held no happiness or mirth. "I don't know why things like this continue to shock me. You'd think I'd be accustomed to fate and luck never being on my side." Shaking her head, Kirsche finished with, "But as things stand, we can do nothing to help. We can only wait."

Haruka heard a man scream and tried to look around the tree to see what was happening, but Kirsche was in the way, and she still couldn't break free of the girl's hold. Suddenly a thought hit her, and she quickly whispered, "You're right, neither of us are ninja. We can't fight whatever that is out there. But at least can't we go get help?" Kirsche shook her head no. "And why not?"

Kirsche sighed, but answered quietly, "For one, because so called 'help' wouldn't arrive in time and for another, because doing so would only make the situation worse. I might not have expected this to happen today, but I do know what must and must not be done for the desired consequences."

"Desired consequences!" exclaimed Haruka breathlessly, "Is that all you care about? My little Sakura is out there in danger and all you—"

Kirsche's hand found itself back in its previous position. "Shhh," cautioned Kirsche, "We mustn't catch anyone's attention. Not until the decisive action has come to pass. Sakura has to make a decision, an unconscious one at that, and it must be the right decision." Kirsche remove her hand from covering Haruka's mouth as she added with a tight voice, "As to your accusation—I do care. If I could I would not have allowed her to come to any harm. But I couldn't. I can't. And what's worse is unlike you, I know the future. I know what I have to do…and that more often than not, what I have to do is the last thing I want to… But I will do it. Unlike for you, following my emotions is not an option. Too much rides on—" Haruka would never find out what Kirsche would have said, because just then Sakura could be heard shouting something that turned into a scream. Kirsche stepped away from the tree. "It's time…"

* * *

Sakura flinched as the puppet man flew until he hit a tree near her. Instead of getting up as he had every time before, the man slid down the tree until he lay slumped against it, his eyes unfocused. From the cloud of dust a stream of sand hurtled towards the dazed man. Sakura didn't even stop to think that the older man had just broken her arm—she threw herself between him and the oncoming sand, desperate to save Gaara. What followed next happened so quickly that Sakura barely was able take in one thing before another came to take its place.

First there was the sand flying towards her. Then she saw Gaara, his eyes widening with fear as he saw she was in his sand's way. Then the sand stopped a millimeter from Sakura's chest. At this point, Sakura's mind could only focus on one thing: Gaara's eyes. They were sea-green, as always, and unlike the last time he had lost control, there was nothing unclear about his gaze. It wasn't that the sand was making Gaara attack the man behind her, it was Gaara…Gaara hadn't lost control at all. But he was still attacking. She didn't have time to wonder why, though, because the instant she recognized that fact, the instant the sand halted right in front of her, was the instant the next round of events took place.

Sakura didn't immediately recognize the danger to her person when something cold touched her neck, but then there came pressure and pain and she realized that the man behind her was holding a kunai to her throat. But he wasn't just holding it. He was in the process of slicing. Sakura barely had time to let fear for her life creep in before the hand was gone. The moment the kunai had touched her throat the sand, which had really only paused, not stopped, rushed around Sakura as Gaara's foam-green eyes narrowed. Sakura had barely recognized that sand had resumed its attack when something warm and wet hit her back.

By the time Sakura realized that what had hit her was blood she could hear screaming, both from the man behind her and from the boys that were being chased by sand. Gaara's eyes were shrinking and he shook as sand started to rise up around him. It was as if he was only now about to lose control. For a moment Sakura was frozen in place as her mind tried to comprehend the fact that Gaara had just deliberately caused all this pain and havoc on her tormentor. Had Sakura been given enough time to really come to terms with this fact, she might have been too terrified to do what had to be done. But as it was, when she saw that Gaara's sand was pinning Kankuro down and that from the look in Gaara's eyes he was still, if barely, in control of himself and the sand—Sakura ran forward, barreling into the boy she called her friend in a mix between a tackle and a one-armed hug. Before the pain in her arm made her scream, Sakura was able to force out a shout:

"Stop!"

* * *

It's been a while since the previous chapter, but I did warn you that it would be. Between school and five jobs I'm more than just a little busy, but I am working on this when I get the chance, so please stick with me. It could be awhile before the next chapter too.

I hope everyone liked the action in this and I also hope you are catching some of the foreshadowing that I am blatantly putting out there.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to some left over Christmas Cookies; flamers won't even get to taste the crumbs. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: rj, Last to Cross, & strawberry030 for reviewing! Hopefully next time more people will review!


	15. Insecurities Unveiled

Disclaimer: I claim nothing…mostly…

Chapter 15: Insecurities Unveiled

"_Stop!"_

At the sound of Sakura's voice, the sand that had been floating menacingly around Gaara fell to the ground, but Sakura didn't notice as the world spun around her. Everyone else noticed, though, for all the sand, which had been chasing and pinning the boys who hadn't done anything to help Sakura out, had quit moving. Gaara fell to the ground as Sakura ran into him, clinging to him one-handed. When she screamed, he momentarily thought that it was because of him. Had his sand hurt her? He had tried to stop it when she stepped in the way, but he hadn't really had time. Did she hate him now for hurting her? But no, as her fingers dug into his skin through his shirt and tears ran down her pale face, Gaara knew it was because of her arm that she was screaming. There was no wound on her chest, at least, not as far as he could tell. Gaara sighed in relief, holding Sakura on his lap, careful of the arm that had a strange lump protruding from it.

When Gaara had seen Sakura being throttled and all those boys, his brother included, just sitting there watching it happen he had acted without thinking. He was angry, but more than that, he was preoccupied with saving Sakura, so when she tumbled into the path of his sand, he had thought his heart would pop—instead it constricted in fear as the kunai appeared at her throat. The hand holding that kunai was all that Gaara could focus on. He couldn't think of what to do, but he ended up not needing to. The sand moved to save Sakura on its own, attacking the kunai-hand that he was unable to tear his eyes away from.

"Gaara…" The red-haired boy jerked, leaning down closer to Sakura. She was shaking and sweaty, he noticed, as she stumbled through her words at a hoarse whisper, "Why? It hurts—" Sakura turned away from him, coughing out blood before whispering once more, "Why?" Worried, Gaara held Sakura closer to him. He had no way of knowing she was really asking about him and his actions. He thought she was concerned about herself, just as he was concerned for her.

"I won't let anyone hurt you, Sakura," Gaara said as bravely as he could, "so don't worry." But _he_ was worried…And angry…And terrified. He didn't know what to do next. He wanted to punish the man who had hurt Sakura. He wanted to teach a lesson to those kids who just stood there and watched Sakura be hurt. He wanted to help Sakura get better. He wanted—Gaara stiffened as Sakura's fingers uncurled from his shirt, dropping down to her chest. "Sakura!" She didn't respond and for a moment Gaara's world stood still. Then Sakura opened her eyes and tried to speak—but she couldn't find the breath to do so. Why was she breathing so quickly?

A hand landing on his shoulder made Gaara jerk, his sand flying into the air, ready for an attack—but none came. Instead he found an older version of Sakura looking him straight in the eye. It was unnerving, but not as much as the scream that issued next. Sakura's silver-haired mother appeared from behind Kirsche, her eyes directed at his sand, which was still hanging in the air. Haruka lunged forward, yelling, "It's not dead yet! Get away!" Gaara stiffened, but what she said next made his eyes widen. "Hurry, you three!" And then the obviously clueless woman grabbed Kirsche's shoulder and made to grab for him and Sakura.

"Stop," Kirsche said sternly, halting the distraught mother before she could touch Gaara or her daughter. "The sand isn't going to hurt her, it saved her life…and it was never alive in the first place." Haruka's face scrunched up with confusion, not understanding how the sand could have been moving to begin with; at least it seemed to be on their side. Sakura's groaning brought everyone's attention to the pale little girl. Haruka hurriedly reached for her daughter, but once more Kirsche stopped her. Shaking her head, Kirsche spoke softly, "She needs a doctor. She's going into shock."

Haruka's eyes widened, her hands shaking, her mind going blank. She knew shock could kill. What should she do? What could she? Kirsche's voice drifted calmly into her turbulent thoughts, "Run to the hospital. Tell them it's an emergency and that two stretchers are needed." Haruka nodded numbly, though she couldn't understand why two were needed. It wasn't until she started running back that she saw the limp form of a man nearby. She had only had eyes for Sakura.

As Haruka sped off, Gaara narrowed his eyes at Kirsche. "Why are you getting help for him too?" he asked angrily, "He's the one who tried to kill Sakura!" To his chagrin, Kirsche nodded her head, as if she were approving what he'd just said.

"Of course, it was bound to happen. Akai hates all foreigners; he has ever since his daughter was killed by one."

Gaara's eyes opened wide and his sands started to stir with his emotions. Then he shouted, "He almost did to her what they had done to him! I hate him!"

Smiling calmly, Kirsche placed a hand on his knee, near Sakura's oddly bumpy arm, and spoke gently, "You're right, he was about to do the same thing. His attack was bound to happen, Gaara, but it was never going to be a success. After all, you saved her, like you always do." Gaara filled with pride at that statement, though at the back of his mind he could hear a voice saying he did a poor job of it. "Besides," continued Kirsche, "now that it has happened, it won't happen again."

Gaara didn't question that Kirsche was right, she was so sure of herself, but he couldn't understand how she could be right. "Why? Why won't it happen again? How can you be sure?" To his surprise, Kirsche patted him on the head as if he were any other child, even though it was clear that she knew something about his sand, unlike Sakura's mom. She knew and she wasn't afraid.

"I know, because he'll figure out what you already did. And he'll know it's because Sakura made the right choice and that it's because of her that he's still alive. He may be a bitter old man and he may never cease hating foreigners, but he's not stupid." Gaara wasn't so sure about that. Smart people didn't try to kill his best friend.

Kirsche shook her head and then said, as if reading his thoughts, "You might not understand now, but maybe one day you will; it's for the best that you didn't kill Akai." Gaara might have asked how so, but just then he heard people nearing the park at a run. Removing her hand from his knee, Kirsche stood up and added, "And here come the medics."

As Sakura was loaded onto a stretcher, Gaara noticed that the strange bump on Sakura's arm was gone.

* * *

When Sakura came to, she found herself staring up at a bag of liquid. It was just beginning to dawn on her that the presence of an I.V. meant she was in the hospital when a voice startled her. "Welcome back, Sakura. How do you feel?" Sakura blinked a few times in confusion. Why would Kirsche be asking her that? If she were in the hospital she couldn't be fine…but she didn't feel bad—not really, anyhow. Her arm hurt, but that was about it…Why was she in the hospital? Sakura's mind worked slowly, trying to push away the veil of sleep that was keeping it from true comprehension. Then her concentration was broken.

"Your arm is fractured," stated Kirsche, "but it's not very bad." Why was her arm fractured? Sakura just couldn't bring herself to remember. "The real danger came from your shock, but Yashamaru helped you through that. Oh, and he healed the cut on your neck. There's not even a scar." Without understanding why, Sakura felt her pulse speed up, as if she were afraid. Why had there been a cut on her neck? Why had her arm been fractured? Sakura's mind struggled to race through the muck of sleep as her heart beat faster and faster. Why couldn't she think straight?

Kirsche answered her unasked question, "They put you under a light sedative, both to help with the shock and so that they could get a better feel for how bad your arm was." Fear was creeping its way through Sakura's veins, though she couldn't pinpoint why. "But as I said, they found that your arm wasn't as bad as the bruising led them to believe. It doesn't even need a cast, though it should be kept wrapped and used little until it heals." Then, smiling broadly, Kirsche added, "And once it heals, it will be stronger!"

Sakura jerked as the phrase passed through her mind like a hot wire. Heal and be stronger. It was so familiar—too familiar. The veil of sleep burst into flames as memories smothered her: The puppet man shaking her, pain, Gaara saving her…Gaara attacking the puppet man—her friend Gaara, not the Sand Gaara. Why? Why had he attacked the man like that? He could have killed him with his sand. And what about Kankuro and the other boys, why had his sand chased them? What if he had hurt them? He didn't want to hurt them…right? Sakura squeezed her eyes closed as pain washed over her, pain that had nothing to do with her fractured arm.

Why? Why did he do it? It hurts to hurt others.

Sakura didn't even think she had said it aloud until Kirsche placed a hand gently on her face, wiping away a tear, "Because he was afraid." As Kirsche continued, Sakura thought she heard pain in her voice, but she knew if she were to open her eyes she would just find a smile. "Afraid of an even deeper hurt; the kind of hurt that comes when you lose someone you love." Sakura didn't know what to say nor even where to begin, so she said nothing as her emotions battled within her.

The silence lengthened and after a while Sakura began to drift towards the realm of sleep, where turbulent dreams undoubtedly awaited. She did not want to dream, but she didn't want to think about what Gaara had done either. It was while she was in this in-between state that she heard a voice that made her wish desperately for the escape of sleep.

"Is Sakura going to be alright?" It was Gaara… Sakura just couldn't face him yet. If she did, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep pictures of his sand attacking people from hitting her in the face. It was hard enough to push them away with her eyes closed. She had to keep reminding herself that this was Gaara, her best friend, and that he had only been trying to protect her.

Sakura could all but hear the smile in Kirsche's voice as she answered, "She will be fine. As I told her a little bit ago, her arm is only lightly fractured. In a few weeks she'll be as good as new, though she should be careful with her arm until then."

"She woke up?" Gaara's hopeful voice almost made Sakura want to open her eyes; then she thought of Kankuro being pinned down by sand and decided against trying. Kirsche answered the affirmative. Sakura could hear Gaara taking steps closer to her and for a fleeting moment she was afraid, and hoped he would just leave her alone. In the next instant, she felt pain spill through her heart for even thinking such a thing. She had just decided to open her eyes to confront Gaara when she found that she was much closer to sleep than she thought. She couldn't force her eyes to open. As Sakura sank into the pool of unwanted sleep, she heard Kirsche stop Gaara.

"Don't. The anesthesia hasn't completely worn off yet, and it seems to have decided to reclaim her. Let her sleep. When she's ready to talk to you, she will—" If Kirsche said anything else to Gaara, Sakura didn't hear it. The next time she heard Kirsche speaking, she was still drifting in sleep and only caught a bit, but she instinctively knew Kirsche wasn't speaking to Gaara; in fact, she had a feeling Gaara was nowhere nearby as Kirsche said, "—just needs some time to come to terms with the fact that the truth isn't quite the same as the pretty picture painted in the mind…would rather hold tight to a misconception, but—" By the time Sakura truly woke up, Haruka and Youko were smiling at her. Kirsche was nowhere in the room.

* * *

The sun was going down when Gaara stopped outside his uncle's workroom. He was planning to ask if he could spend the night at the hospital, so that he could be with Sakura if she needed him. He hadn't been able to speak with her all day, and he was still afraid that something could happen to her if he wasn't there for her. When he heard his uncle speaking, he froze in place, his hand raised to knock. At first it was because he knew that if his uncle had guests, they probably wouldn't want him there…not like Sakura—Sakura never ran away or looked at him like was a monster—then Gaara caught some of what Yashamaru was saying, and his breath caught in his throat.

"…perhaps we should send her away" Gaara's eyes widened and his fists clenched as a dark voice whispered in his head that his uncle had better not be talking about Sakura. "…no, I don't, but…for everyone's sake…" He didn't know who his uncle was talking to or even who he was talking about for sure, but Gaara feared he did, which made his gut churn in a terrible way. "No…I haven't found a chance to—hold on." The door swung open and Yashamaru looked down at the wide-eyed five-year-old, his face perfectly schooled to not give away even a hint of emotion as he spoke into the communicator he was holding. "I'll have to contact you later. Gaara is here." Turning his eyes on the boy, Yashamaru asked, "What have I told you about listening in to others' conversations?"

Gaara felt himself relax. Surely Yashamaru wouldn't be so calm if he had really just been talking about sending away his only friend. No. He was acting as he always did when he caught Gaara somewhere he shouldn't be. No. There was no way Yashamaru would do something so mean. Unlike his father, Yashamaru loved him.

* * *

Kirsche sat down across from Sakura's bed, smiling at the girl who was wide awake despite the late hour. Sleeping too much throughout the day would do that to a person, especially a child. Not that it was Sakura's fault she had been put under anesthesia. When Sakura saw her, the little pink haired girl screwed up her face, "You're not going to tell me to go to bed too, are you? I'm not tired!"

Kirsche chuckled, shaking her head before answering in a quiet voice, "No Sakura, I know better than that nurse. You won't sleep until you're ready to. That's not what I came here for."

Sakura tilted her head to the side and spoke as quietly as Kirsche had, "Why are we whispering?"

Kirsche shook her head and answered as softly as she had before, though it wasn't really a whisper, "I wanted to talk to you about the awakening of your Kekkei Genkai, and it would be better if other people were not given a chance to overhear." Sakura scooted forward on the hospital bed, her eyes betraying her curiosity. Kirsche had been withholding any information dealing with the awakening process, other than the fact that the Scroll of the Circle would be used, and Sakura was dying to find out more. She didn't even know how to use the Scroll, let alone what it did, and every time she had asked before, Kirsche had avoided answering. Now that she might get some answers, Sakura felt excited to the point of almost being giddy.

Kirsche crossed one leg over the other, raising one hand to cover the grin that was forming as she settled into her chair. Once Kirsche's hand returned to her lap, a calm smile sat on her lips and when she spoke, her quiet voice was just as calm. "I can't tell you too much yet, but there are some things you ought to know because…well," Kirsche scratched her head, sighed, then finished, "because things are going faster than I anticipated and if I don't inform you now, I might run out of time to do it later."

Sakura nodded, understanding that what Kirsche was talking about had something to do with the limits of seeing the future, though she didn't know what exactly. Suddenly a thought hit her and she had to ask, even though it meant interrupting Kirsche. "Did you know that was going to happen to me today? Did you know Gaara was going to—" Sakura cut herself off, not even wanting to try to find words for what Gaara had done. When she saw the knowing look on the Hoshi's face, Sakura knew the answer to her question. "If you knew, why didn't you stop him?" Sakura asked, almost pleading, "You stopped those ninja that attacked us. Why didn't you stop him the same way?"

Kirsche held up two fingers. When Sakura quieted, she lowered one finger as she answered as calmly as if Sakura hadn't practically started crying, "One, because I didn't know it would happen today. In fact, by all means, it shouldn't have." Seeing the need for an explanation in Sakura's eyes, Kirsche added, "It was completely improbable. It was as likely to happen today as it was likely that you would find the very same grain of sand that you removed from your shoe last week back in your shoe this week. It shouldn't happen. Many would say that it couldn't happen. That it was impossible. But the fact that you're in the hospital right now proves that the impossible came to pass. And this brings me to my second point."

Raising the second finger, Kirsche continued, "When you gain your Eyes, you will have to learn an important lesson, though it's a good thing to know even for those who are not one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_. It was a hard lesson for me to learn, and it will be hard for you…and some people never do learn it, but you must learn that…just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should." Knowing Sakura was having a hard time grasping the concept, still viewing it as Kirsche not saving her friend form more pain, Kirsche immediately asked, "Or do you think, for instance, that Gaara should have killed Akai and the children."

"No!" Sakura exclaimed loudly, only to slap her hands over mouth as she remembered that they were supposed to be quiet. Kirsche nodded, raising one eyebrow as she did so. Sakura had been her student long enough to know that that meant she was supposed to explain herself. "Be-because," Sakura stumbled, trying to figure out how to explain something so obvious, "Because it's bad to kill people!" Somehow as soon as she said it, Sakura knew it was the wrong answer, and when Kirsche opened her mouth, Sakura knew what she was going to say before she said it.

"Ninja kill all the time…but you don't need me to say anymore, do you? You knew that when you decided you wanted to be one."

Sakura hung her head. Yes, she had known…but this and that were different. How could she explain to Kirsche that ninja killed bad people but Gaara— Sakura felt tears stinging her eyes when finally she said, "Ninja are good guys, but Gaara was about to…be the bad guy. Why?" the little girl sniffled, not noticing that Kirsche had winced at her use of good and bad as definitions, "Why would he go so far? His sand wasn't in control, and he had already saved me, so why? I know he doesn't like hurting people, so why didn't he stop?"

By this point, Sakura was really crying, though even now she was trying not to be loud about it. Kirsche slowly rose from her chair, moving over to sit on the bed to better comfort Sakura. Smoothing the child's hair, Kirsche eventually said, "I didn't mean to make you cry…but I suppose this means that you do understand… As to why, well…I can't say for certain, since I'm not him, but…Gaara probably felt it was worth becoming the 'bad guy' if it meant there would be one less threat to you. If you want any more than that… You'll have to ask him yourself." Sakura shook her head no against Kirsche's chest, leaning in to the older girl's hold, trying to soak up as much comfort as she could.

The pink haired child didn't know why, but she was afraid to face Gaara. And she was ashamed for it.

* * *

I'm glad I was finally able to finish this chapter…though I probably should have been doing homework…I couldn't help the fact that I had both inspiration and a drive to write that was driving me crazy. I'm really overworked at the moment, but I can't stop my muse, and I really wish I had more time to follow it wherever and whenever it decides to take me by the hand…but I can't. If I could, you would get updates a lot more often than you do.

I have an important question that I've been pondering on my own, and I wanted your opinion: Do you think I should have Yashamaru die in this story like he does in the original Naruto? Why or why not?

Reviews and constructive criticism deserve one of Kirsche's hugs. Flamers, however, are beyond the extent of Kirsche's of empathy and therefor shall be put out without a hint of regret. Now, onto the LONG _pretty list_!

Thanks to: pillowwolfpup, annarolls (it's ok. Believe me, I understand what it's like to be busy. Thank you for all your complements, and not to mention your long review...I love long reviews. As to your statement about Kirsche...I don't think I should respond, for you and everyone else's sake...though I love to hear your guesses), DramaQueen4eva, l36c15, Shadow wolf fang (your welcome), SnowWolfSpirit, Mr. Potato Head P (aka: my silly cousin...do you still think I'm horrible?), Flyteless Kitsune (I'm glad you were willing to break your tradition for my story...but don't worry, it will eventually hit the 80,000 word point, you're just a few steps ahead of it), Cindy Medeiros, 555 (thank you), & Ninja Star Light (I'm thankful you didn't use His name in vain and thankful for your complement) for reviewing!


	16. Imparting Messages

Disclaimer: yeah…I still can't claim much of anything…

Chapter 16:Imparting Messages

"…_Gaara probably felt it was worth becoming the 'bad guy' if it meant there would be one less threat to you. If you want any more than that… You'll have to ask him yourself." Sakura shook her head no against Kirsche's chest, leaning in to the older girl's hold, trying to soak up as much comfort as she could. _

_The pink haired child didn't know why, but she was afraid to face Gaara. And she was ashamed for it._

Kirsche finally disentangled herself from Sakura's hold, speaking softly, "I didn't really come here to talk about what happened today at the park, though I hope that I've helped lift at least some of your burden. If I had more time, I wouldn't mind continuing this conversation, but as it is, I have much to inform you about the upcoming awakening of your Hoshi Eyes, and little time left in which I can be sure not to be overheard." Sakura wiped her wet eyes and nodded, trying to smile as her previous excitement about hearing about the subject that Kirsche had been avoiding for so long came back to her.

"I know you've been keeping up with your Chakra exercises, and you've made a lot of progress. If you continued improving at the rate you are, you'd be ready to use the Scroll of the Circle on your own within a few short years…but I'm afraid I don't have years, and since I need to be with you during your awakening, neither do you. Normally your lack of the proper Chakra stores would mean that the Scroll wouldn't work, but that's where I come in. I will supply the rest of the necessary Chakra for both you and myself."

Sakura raised her hand as if in class before asking, "Why do you need to open the scroll with me?" hastily adding, "Not that I don't want you to, I just…"

Kirsche smiled gently, "It's true that it is a bit unconventional, and if you lived in the clan it would never be allowed, but thankfully you don't since my help is necessary. If I don't help you, the Scroll won't take you down the best path." Pausing, Kirsche tugged on a lock of hair, as if debating whether to go on or not. Sakura sucked in her breath, as if holding back both her questions and her oxygen would entice Kirsche to continue. A whole minute went past before Sakura could let go of her held breath.

"The Scrolls," Kirsche said slowly, as if measuring each word before she said it, "make the process of awakening easier by doing most of the work, leaving only the supply of power up to you; however, there is a drawback—a cost, if you will, for the shortcut. Those who rely purely on the Scroll lose the ability to choose the path they will walk, be they Time Walking or otherwise, and in your case, the path you walk is critical. Therefore, since you are not yet capable to directing your own path, I must do it for you."

Questions swarmed Sakura's mind: What kind of path was she supposed to take? How do you 'direct' it? What would happen if she took the wrong path? What would happen if she took the right path? Why did she have to go on a path in the first place? Did she actually have to go somewhere? If so, what did going places have to do with awakening her Kekkei Genkai? If not, what did the Scroll do that led to these so called 'paths' that weren't really paths that somehow awakened the Hoshi Eyes? How could there be right and wrong ways, or at least better and worse ways to become one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_? These questions and more overwhelmed Sakura and eventually one generic one just popped out of her mouth: What did the Scroll do and why did it have to be controlled?

Once again a long silence ensued as Kirsche tugged on her hair, clearly thinking about her answer before she gave it. "I'll try to explain more later since there isn't much time left, but for now I suppose I can tell you a bit of what to expect—so you won't be frightened. The process of awakening is a trial of sorts that, when done correctly, will not only awaken your Hoshi Kekkei Genkai but also bring about an understanding of Time." To Sakura's disappointment, Kirsche didn't stop to explain what kind of understanding she was talking about.

"In order to begin the trial using the Scroll, some blood will need to be drawn and placed on it so that the Scroll can be linked to you. It won't require a lot of blood, but you might want to think of where you want the blood taken from. After all," Kirsche said while pushing up her left sleeve, "where the blood is taken from will be the beginning of a mark that physically proves your place as one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_." Sakura's eyes widened as Kirsche's sleeve made it just past her elbow, showing a few scars that looked similar to comas. "This is mine." The little girl squirmed in her seat as she did everything in her power to stop herself from asking about the odd scar. This time she was in luck and the answer was forthcoming.

As the sleeve was lowered again Kirsche explained, "The marks will be red at the beginning of the trial, or any time you use one of the Scrolls for that matter, since you are a Time Walker. As the trial progresses the marks will fade until they look as mine did. When the last one fades, the trial will be over, though the scars will remain with you for life." The silence returned as Kirsche stared off into space, as if looking at something that wasn't there. For all Sakura knew, she could be. Blinking, Kirsche returned her gaze to Sakura and added, "When the trial ends any other…side effects…will also disappear."

This time Sakura couldn't stop herself from springing forth a question, "_What_ side effects?"

Kirsche smiled and shook her head in such a way that Sakura couldn't tell whether she was trying to be reassuring or was finding her question funny. Whichever it was, Kirsche answered without pausing as she had before, "I can't say for certain until we use the Scroll, but some things about you and your surroundings could change." As if sensing that Sakura was about to say something else, Kirsche quickly added, "But don't worry about that. Any changes that happen won't be too drastic, and since I've now given you some warning, they shouldn't be too surprising either."

Sakura opened her mouth to ask for an example, since Kirsche's answer didn't really answer anything, but Kirsche held up her hand to silence her. "As to the other part of your question, what needs to be controlled in the case of your awakening is the timing. In order for you to follow the best path, the trial must be started at exactly the right time and place. The placing isn't hard since I already know approximately where it must be begun, but the timing is. There are too many variables to properly deduce the timing much ahead of time, which means that we will have to rush as soon as I find out the time so that we don't miss it. And that is why I decided to tell you this now, before the assurance of your privacy is lost."

Sakura tilted her question-heavy head to the side, "What do you mean by losing assurance of privacy?" When Kirsche just looked at her without responding, Sakura rested her head on Kirsche's arm and rephrased her question, "What is assurance of privacy?" Once again Kirsche didn't answer. The silence deepened as Sakura stared up at her pink haired relative, willing her with her eyes to give an answer. Kirsche's smile grew closer to a grin as she shook her head and looked back at Sakura. But she wasn't looking at Sakura. Just as the little girl realized that Kirsche was looking past her, not at her, footsteps lightly padding down the hall outside the door became audible.

Sakura shifted to look behind her, fighting a yawn as the door opened and Yashamaru stepped into the room. Sakura smiled gently at the man she was getting quite accustomed to calling her doctor and waved her good arm in hello. She would have done more if at that moment another yawn hadn't overcome her, cutting off her voice and any thoughts she might have had of sitting upright

"Ah…hello," greeted Yashamaru hesitantly as he stood in the doorway, "what are you doing out of bed?"

Sakura blinked, her eyes suddenly feeling heavy. "But I am in bed," she said slowly through another yawn, truly unable to understand that the medic was referring to her being awake and not her position on the bed. As Sakura rubbed her eyes with her good hand, a little red-head stepped out from behind his uncle as the older man cleared his throat.

Yashamaru said something about sleeping, but Sakura's lead-weighted eyes stayed focused on Gaara as her mind drifted. The pink haired girl wasn't aware that she was smiling brightly at him as she fell into the sleep that had been threatening since earlier. She wasn't aware of the fact that just earlier she had been afraid to face the boy she was now smiling at. She wasn't aware that the boy she was smiling at was gaining a smile bigger than any he had had before simply because her smile had erased all his fears that she might not forgive him for his violent behavior. No, the only thing Sakura was aware of as her eyelids fluttered closed was that before her was her bestest friend in the whole world; and though she couldn't even think to describe it as sleep poured through her veins, Gaara's presence made her feel safe and warm, as if nothing could hurt her.

Later, when Sakura awoke alone to her hospital room she would have no memory of Gaara and Yashamaru entering the room the night before, but those feelings of warmth and safety would persist and her fear of Gaara, though still present, would lessen each time she pretended to be asleep when he visited her. By the time Sakura met Gaara face to face, though it was quite by accident, all she could think to do was hug him.

* * *

"What will you do?"

Youko stood before room 350, letting her eyes roam over the two ninja that were guarding the door as she waited for the man standing beside her to answer her question. She doubted he would get violent with the patient that lay on the other side of the door, he wasn't one to get violent, but even she couldn't be sure that this wouldn't end up being the one exception. After all, she was the patient's nurse and it had taken all her willpower not to slap him or strangle him…or speak to him at all. If she had, she knew she would have blown her top, which, as his nurse, she was not allowed to do. Her brother had no such restraints.

Finally Shin answered solemnly, his face blank of all emotion, "Whatever it takes to obtain the truth." Youko shivered but nodded. She knew how her brother felt. Stepping forward Youko passed the guards that were there for the patient's safety and opened the door, schooling her face into blankness as she entered the windowless room. In the middle of the room lay a single bed where a man lay propped up, his head bandaged all the way over his eyes. One arm was attached to an I.V. while the other lay hidden under the covers along with the rest of his body.

Youko let her brother pass her then closed the door, answering his unspoken question, "Shards of the Kunai he had held to her throat got embedded in his face. Yashamaru has done what he can, whether Akai sees again or not is up to him, the same with the use of his hand." Shin just nodded, his grey eyes cold.

A voice from the bed nearly made Youko jump, "Ah, that's the first time I've heard you speak, Miss Nurse. Who have you brought to see me?" Youko didn't bother responding, her hands tightening into fists. This man had no remorse for what he had done to Sakura.

Shin patted his sisters shoulder once before walking towards the bed calmly, stating "The little girl you attacked the other day was my daughter."

What could be seen of the man's face twisted into an ugly smirk, "So, you're the one who brought the spying guttersnipe into our village?" He spat, "I hope Shukaku killed her. Teach her and all your outsider scum not to—"Akai cut himself off. The very air around him felt as if it were closing in, and not because anything was actually being done or said by the man standing across from him. He didn't need to be able to see to know he had gone too far…this…was not a man to cross.

"Akai, why did you attack my daughter?" When he received no answer, Shin asked, "What it because of what happened to Keiko?"

Akai jerked and then screamed, "What do you know of my daughter! Leave her out of this. It was you foreigners who killed her, and she but twelve years old!" The heavy atmosphere thickened, weighing down even more heavily on the injured man.

Finally Shin spoke softly, "And so you attack the daughter of a former business partner?"

"Who do you think you are? I would never work with an outside—"

For the first time, Shin cut off Akai, his voice only now beginning to show emotion, "If I remember correctly it was you who called me the master of working wood, the best in all of Suna who even Elder Chiyo acknowledged. But then, it has been ten years. You might not be the man I thought you were."

Turning on his heels, Shin started walking back towards his sister and the door, not even halting when Akai called out, "Wait! Is that you, Shin?"

The mahogany haired man did not even blink as he addressed Youko with stone eyes, "I now know the truth. Let us go, sis."

"Shin Kaneko? Youko Kaneko? Wait!"

* * *

One evening Sakura awoke suddenly from a nightmare to find Gaara sitting on the edge of her bed. The pink haired child didn't even think about avoiding him or even asking what he was doing in her hospital room this late at night. All Sakura could think about was how great it was to not be alone. Springing from under her covers Sakura launched herself at Gaara so quickly that he barely realized she was awake before he was nearly knocked off the bed. If his sand hadn't created a barrier when it did, both he and Sakura would have hit the ground.

Gaara almost panicked when Sakura barreled into him, fleetingly fearing that she was angry at him—but she was hugging him. He didn't truly begin to panic until he noticed that his pink-haired bur was crying. "What's wrong?" he gasped, looking around the dark room frantically, "D-did you hurt your arm? Should I go get someone?" He was already starting to stand up when he noticed that Sakura was holding onto him even tighter than before, keeping him in place. He was becoming so confused and frantic that he almost missed Sakura's whisper.

"…don't…" Gaara froze, holding his breath as Sakura's tear-filled voice reached him, "Don't go…don't leave me…everyone left me…I don't want to be alone…" Slowly a thought thawed his mind as he wrapped his arms around his best friend. Sakura wasn't crying because she was hurt but because she was scared. Just like the first time he had met her it struck him just how different Sakura was from everyone else. When people were scared, they ran away from him, but not Sakura. Sakura ran towards him as if it were natural. She ran towards him as if she had nothing to fear from him, as if there was no chance his sand would hurt her just as there was no chance that his sand would hurt him.

For a moment Gaara quit breathing as a realization smacked him in the face.

Sakura was right. Not once since he had met her had his sand hurt her. The only time his sand had ever struck at her was when Shukaku had been in control—but then, that wasn't his sand, now was it—it was Shukaku's, not his. _His_ sand had never hurt her, not even when she surprised him like she just did, throwing herself at him without warning. No, his sand hadn't even moved to stop her. Rather, it had even moved on its own to keep the both of them from falling off the bed, as if to save her from injuring herself even more. Why, he didn't know.

His sand had never before protected anyone else without his say so, not even his uncle who he loved greatly and who, he knew, loved him back. But when Gaara thought about it, it had happened in the park just a few days ago too. He had wanted to save Sakura but he had been focusing on the man with the kunai, not her. He hadn't told his sand to stop her from falling, but it did, and he hadn't even had time to tell it not to hit her when she stepped in the way of his attack, but his sand avoided her anyhow, flowing around her as if it knew she was different. And she was different. Gaara just couldn't name how, though the more he thought about it the more examples he came up with.

Gaara felt like he was on the verge of an explanation when Sakura sat up and rubbed her eyes with one hand, her whispered apology breaking into his mind and erasing his thoughts. It took him a few moments to realize she was apologizing because she had gotten his shirt wet. He couldn't help but smile. When he noticed that Sakura's bandaged, shaking hand was still clutching his shirt his smile fell. He hated the man who had hurt her. He hated him so much he wished that Sakura hadn't stepped in his way before. He wished he had finished that sorry excuse for a man before he had been put under guard at the hospital. He should have—

"No!" Gaara flinched as Sakura's voice rose, breaking the silence of the night as she scramble on the bed. He didn't know what was going on until he felt her fingers on his hands, which he only now realized were in fists. "No," called Sakura again, this time so softly and waveringly Gaara could tell she was crying, even though he couldn't see her face in the dark. Gaara's fists loosened in shock as it hit him that now she was crying because of him—he didn't know what he had done, but he hated it. Sakura's fingers lightly pried open his fists as she inched forward on her knees, whispering, "Don't, Gaara." Her hands were shaking.

Gaara didn't understand what was wrong, but he knew of only one way to make Sakura stop crying. With her hands still in his, Gaara tugged, being careful of her injured arm as he pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry," whispered the red-head, "Whatever I did, I'm sorry. Please don't cry."

Sniffling, Sakura hugged Gaara back, her whole body trembling. "Don't be angry," she sniveled into Gaara's shirt, "Don't leave me alone. I don't want to lose you." Gaara almost responded, but Sakura spoke again too soon, "It hurts…Gaara…" Sakura pulled back so that she was looking him in the eye, "…when you get angry…when you hurt people…it hurts…" Gaara was at a loss for what to say as Sakura's hand moved to cover her heart and moonlight glistened off her flowing tears, "It hurts, right here and…" the pink haired girl shifted her hand from over her heart to over his, "…and I know it hurt here too. Anger hurts, hurting hurts…and I don't like hurting."

Gaara felt tears prickling in his own eyes, "I—I wasn't trying to hurt you. I—I'm sorry, I—" Fingers wiping away a tear from his face made Gaara freeze.

"I know," whispered Sakura through her own tears, "and thank you, but…" the little girl turned her head towards the window as she finished, "but I'm not the one you should be saying sorry to. It's Mr. Akai and Kankauro and—"

"No!" Sakura's face swiveled back to face Gaara as he growled, "He hurt you; he tried to kill you! I won't forgive him! He should be the one asking for forgiveness!" Although anger was clearly saturating his voice, Sakura couldn't help but feel that her best friend was crying on the inside.

"Your right," Sakura smiled sadly, feeling as if her heart would break, knowing she was the cause of Gaara's pain, "he should apologize…but you need to too." As if he had been slapped, Gaara jerked away from Sakura.

Stumbling off the bed, Gaara glared, "No, I won't! I hate him!"

"Gaara," Sakura cried, reaching out for him, "don't—"

Her hand was slapped away as Gaara ran, slamming her window open and jumping out. Sakura tumbled to the floor trying to stop him, but she was too late. When she reached her window he had vanished into the night. Clinging to the windowsill Sakura cried out Gaara's name to no response. Then she just cried and cried, slowly sinking to the floor where she cradled her arm, which she had hit when she fell on the floor. But it wasn't because her arm hurt that she was crying, it was because she had lost Gaara. Just like in her nightmare, she was all alone again.

She was all alone and Gaara hated her.

* * *

I'm glad I was able to finally finish this chapter, since I've been so busy lately. The lack of reviews didn't encourage me any either. It will probably be at least another month before I get the next chapter out, but as always remember, I will update. I never leave stories unfinished.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to some Easter candy, flamers, on the other hand, are welcome to the boot. Now, onto the _pretty_ (but short) _list_!

Thanks to: annarolls (thank you so much for your long reviews, they really make my day...and yes...you might six foot under if you hugged Gaara, only Sakura can do that and get away with it...as to Sakura's fear of Gaara, let me remind you that it is a child's fear, and such fears tend to be easily forgotten, or at least pushed under the rug. And yes, some of the things you did guess right, though obviously not all), l36c15, & refractive (thank you, you actually were my 100th review) for reviewing!


	17. Distressing Damsels

Disclaimer: yeah…claiming…it ain't happening…

Chapter 17: Distressing Damsels   
(Duty-Bound to Destroy Dumb Dudes)

Gaara sat on the rounded top of a building a block away from Sakura's hospital room, knees tucked to his chest as he stared out over the moonlit city. Sakura's cries for him to not leave her echoed in his head but he was afraid to turn around. He didn't want to apologize to that Akai man and he instinctively knew that if he stayed with Sakura, she would find a way to make it happen. She wouldn't force him to, she never forced him to do anything, but still…she had a way of influencing him that even he couldn't understand. It was almost as if what she wanted became what he wanted. But he didn't want to forgive the man who had nearly taken the person he cared for most in this world away from him. He wouldn't forgive the man. He couldn't.

Red hair shook from side to side as Gaara tried to clear his head of his best friend's voice. It was whispering, but he didn't want to hear, he didn't want to listen; he knew what was being said, and he didn't want to know. Images of the potbellied Akai holding Sakura up by the neck filtered before his eyes, blocking out the cityscape. He was smiling. He liked seeing the pink haired child in pain. The kunai at Sakura's throat—the very same throat that had just tried to save his miserable life. Gaara's arms tightened on his legs, his hands fisting into the fabric of his pants as the memories reminded him why there was no reason to forgive Sakura's attacker. The man hadn't cared that he was alive because of her.

A hot wire wrapped around Gaara's heart as he remembered the look in Akai's eyes as he began to slash Sakura's throat. He had seen the look often enough. It wasn't the crazed eyes of the woman whose son had been trapped in a building that had been knocked over. It wasn't the eyes filled with the belief that they were doing the right thing that he had seen in the eyes of numerous ninja. It was the eyes of the villagers who ran to hide when he passed by and the assassins that had tried to claim his life. It was pure hatred. He had never seen such a look pointed towards anyone but himself…until now…and having seen it pointed at Sakura, he wished he still hadn't.

The thought of those eyes following her as they did him made the wire burn through Gaara's heart to settle at its core. Nobody had a right to look at Sakura like they looked at him, as if she were a monster. She was nothing like him; rather she was everything he was not. If he was the monster everyone called him, then she was…like his mother, who Yashamaru said had died loving him, protecting him just as his sand now did. Only Sakura was alive and needed his protection instead.

Gaara _would_ protect her…and he would not forgive those who hurt her. If he did, it would be as if he had accepted the pain they caused her, and he couldn't accept that any more than he could that he deserved to be hated. Sakura didn't hate him despite how many times he had failed to protect her from others. His sand had even hurt her and she _still_ forgave him when he wasn't sure he could forgive himself. Why should he accept being hated by anyone else when the person who had the most right to feel betrayed by him, his best and only friend, not only didn't hate him but still sought safety and comfort in his arms?

_"…don't leave me… I don't want to be alone…"_

Gaara stiffened as the memory whispered in his ear with Sakura's voice. Gaara looked back at the hospital room he had abandoned in his flare up of pride and anger. The window Sakura wasn't tall enough to reach was still open. Gaara slowly unfurled his arms from his legs, telling himself that it wasn't guilt that was making his heart feel like it had been dunked in ice-water. As he stood up, though, Gaara could only ignore the fact that his anger had hurt Sakura again. He had left her alone. He knew he had—he had heard her cries as he ran away—but he told himself that the only reason he was going back was to close the window so no one would know he and his sand had been there. He wasn't going back because he felt guilty. Not at all.

Scampering over rooftops Gaara made his way silently through the night until he was right across from Sakura's open hospital window. He was already sending his sand towards the window to close it when he noticed that Sakura's bed was empty. Fear gripped the red-head's heart and without thinking he leaped towards the windowsill. If not for his sand he would have landed on the very girl that had sent him jumping, for rather than having gone missing or back to bed she was huddled on the ground in front of the window. "Sa—?" began Gaara as his sand shifted so that he wouldn't land on his pink haired burr, but then he cut himself off when he saw through the shadows that her eyes were closed.

Gaara stood staring at the sleeping child, torn between waking her and leaving her to sleep. It couldn't be good for her to sleep on a cold hard floor but if he woke her… What if she told him to apologize to Akai again? He couldn't do it since he wasn't sorry in the least. If only he was big enough to pick Sakura up he could move her to the bed without waking her. But he wasn't. He was just a child who never seemed to be able to help his best friend. He was a child who could kill bullies with sand but couldn't even move Sakura back to her hospital bed. He was a child who was—

Gaara's eyes widened as a thought slapped him upside the head… he was overlooking the obvious. The guilt-ridden gloom that had shrouded Shukaku's host disappeared immediately as Gaara stared at his hands. He had killed and restrained hundreds of people using his sand, he had caught things, stopped things and buried things with his sand, but never before had he contemplated using his sand to carry another person—himself, perhaps, but never anyone else. If he had, he could easily predict their reactions, none of which were pleasant to think about. But Sakura was different.

His pink haired burr needed his help, and since he wasn't big enough to help her himself the duty would fall to his sand…and he knew that even if she weren't sleeping she wouldn't protest. She never ran away from him and his sand; even when it was doing things that she didn't understand or was afraid of she always would come to him about it, as if he weren't the cause—and he knew that she knew he was the cause…but she ran to him anyway. She was the only person he could say that of.

Smiling tenderly, Gaara held out his hands and motioned to the sand, having it carefully scoop Sakura up so as not to wake her and gingerly depositing her on the hospital bed. His sand hovered around Sakura protectively as Gaara tiptoed over to her bed. He might not be big enough to carry Sakura himself yet, but he certainly was big enough to pull the covers over her. As he was tucking the sheet around Sakura's shoulders Gaara froze, his heart clenching. A moon beam was now illuminating gleaming trails on the sleeping child's face. His not-guilt reminded him that it had never left, making him want to squash it in any way he could.

Maybe Sakura was right…maybe he should apologize. Not to Akai—never to Akai—but maybe…yes, that should work…if he did that Sakura would smile again and this feeling that wasn't guilt would go away…but it would have to wait until morning. A small smile made its way to Gaara's face as he levered himself up onto Sakura's bed. Reaching out, he silently wiped the remainder of Sakura's pain from her face. He refused to think that he was the cause of those tears; he preferred to think only of his returning her to happiness.

* * *

A hand gently shook Sakura. "Hm…wha…" she mumbled as for a moment she was stuck in a dark void filled with the laughter of cruel children. Then the bubble popped and the hospital room swam into view, but she was no less disoriented. She didn't remember getting into bed. Shifting to look at the sun filled window Sakura found it closed. Odd…she was sure Gaara had left it open…Gaara… Sakura's head dropped down and tears threatened as the memory of her friend's face, contorted with anger, swam to mind. Gaara probably didn't think of her as a friend anymore…Sakura sniffled as the scene played over again in her head…he hated her…he definitely—

"Now, now, don't cry." Sakura jerked around, coming face to face with a pair of narrowed eyebrows. "What did I say about that crying thing?"

Sakura cracked a smile as she swiped her good arm across her watery eyes. "N-not to."

Her response was met with a giant grin. "Glad you remember, now put it to practice." When Sakura's smile grew, Temari laughed, "That's more like it! Guess what; Uncle Yashamaru says that you can go home today…" She added the next part when Sakura almost jumped off the bed, "Not yet, but later today anyhow, he also said I could go spend the night with you if that's alright with your family!" Now both of them were bouncing on the bed.

Suddenly Sakura stopped, "I don't know if we'll be able to. As soon as I get out Kirsche will probably start training me again…it would be boring for you."

"Training?" Temari asked, leaning forward curiously, "What kind of training?"

"Well," Sakura scratched her head, "mostly it's her telling me things about the Hoshi and then me doing this sitting and breathing thing—I think she called it meditation—it's supposed to give me more Chakra or something like that. She says the hard work won't start until later."

Temari rolled her eyes, "Adults always say that—they don't know what hard is." Sakura shrugged, not really sure what Temari meant, though she wasn't going to say anything about it. Temari flopped down next to Sakura with a sigh, "Take dance class, for example. Madam Fancy Pants is always going on and on about how if we don't work hard now we'll never make it through the harder steps…but all she ever teaches us is stupid fru-fru stuff that is absolutely useless!" Sitting up violently Temari growled, "When, as a ninja, am I ever going to have to know that if I bend my arm just so it means 'I love you' but if I change it like this it means 'go away'?" Temari gasped out, gesturing wildly before shouting, "Never, that's when!"

Giggles that Sakura had been trying to hold in burst out; Temari glared at her. Thinking quickly, Sakura spouted, "Maybe one day you'll pretend to be a dancer for a mission."

Temari rolled her eyes, stating sarcastically, "Yeah, and maybe one day I'll become Suna's ambassador to Konoha…or, more likely, I'll die of boredom because Madam Fancy Pants thinks I have talent and won't let me quit! I swear, she really makes me want to kick sand in her face or something like that. She never shuts up and she doesn't listen! Why does she have ears if she's never going to use them?"

Sakura covered her mouth, but even so her giggles could be heard. Once again Temari glared at her, but this time the laughter became contagious and without really understanding why, soon both of them were rolling on the bed, laughing as if it would stop the world from ending. Then a tickle fight erupted, followed by more laughter, until finally Yashamaru stepped into the room, a sour look on his face. "Temari," he exhaled "If you keep this up you might not get to visit Sakura's tonight due to her bursting a lung with all this raucous laughter."

Both Temari and Sakura gasped, their faces turning white. "W-will my lungs really _burst_?" Sakura asked, her voice cracking, "W-will it hurt?"

For a moment Yashamaru just stared at her and then a small smile crept up onto his face. "Not if you do as I say. And Temari, I was just informed that your dance studio will be having a guest dancer today, one you teacher suggested you come see, so you'll be heading to class early." Temari groaned as her uncle stepped towards the door, shaking his head. "I know it will cut into your time with Sakura, but since you'll likely be seeing her again later, you shouldn't dwell on it. Now, I'll be back in twenty minutes to see you off and to gather Sakura for some tests." As the door closed, he added, "Sooner if you start another ruckus." Temari groaned.

"Maybe," began Sakura cautiously, "It might not be so bad." Her blond haired friend gave her an incredulous look. "What? It might not be…maybe the guest person will actually be interesting."

Temari snorted. "Yeah, and maybe Kankuro will yell 'I'm a damsel in distress'." Sakura slapped her hands over her mouth; holding in the laughter she was sure would burst her lungs if she let it out. Temari grinned, "It's a funny idea, and it would be even funnier if he was running around in a tutu but it isn't ever going to happen…neither your idea nor mine. Now, enough about that, what do you think we should do tonight?"

The two girls continued chatting away until a knock sounded at the door and both Yashamaru and Youko stepped into the room. As soon as she saw them, Temari's shoulders slumped and she dejectedly walked towards the door. "Good girl." Yashamaru said with a gentle smile on his face, patting his niece on the shoulder, "Have fun." Temari shrugged off his hand as she shuffled out the doorway, pouting. Next Yashamaru turned to look at Sakura and said, "Now, let's do some tests. If the tests go well and you behave we might get done before noon, then you can read a book or something until Youko and I are off. Then we'll go pick up Temari from class for your sleepover." Sakura's enthusiastic bouncing was met with a frown and a warning to not jump around so much, for her arm's sake.

The little pink haired child pouted, "I can't laugh, I can't jump, so what _can_ I do?"

Her aunt smiled while taking her hand and answered, "You can come along, that's what."

* * *

As Sakura walked between Yashamaru and Auntie Youko she glared down at the sling her bandaged arm was now resting in. She didn't like the thing. It itched, it limited how she could move, and it never seemed to be positioned right, making her feel even more awkward in it than she had with just the bandaged arm. "Why do I have to wear this?" Sakura complained, tugging at the cloth near her shoulder, trying to make it lay flatter.

Youko sighed, "For the tenth time, it's because you've proven yourself incapable of holding it stationary for any amount of time. If you keep bouncing around like you have been the fracture will only get bigger rather than smaller. You should be happy it wasn't bad enough to require a cast, Sakura. Then you'd understand that this is nothing."

Sakura stared up at the older woman. Taking a hint from the medic's tone of voice, Sakura asked, "Have you ever broken a bone, Auntie Youko?"

It was Yashamaru who chuckled, "Multiple times, in fact. If I remember correctly the first time was when we were about ten or so, Shin and I had dared you to climb a tree that not even the older children would climb and so up you went…and then down you came, much faster than you went up."

Youko shivered, "Yes, and I'm never going up again." Turning to Sakura, she added, "And I better not ever find you up one of those tall trees…because if you are and you get stuck, I won't come and get you." Sakura's eyes widened. Even when Yashamaru assured her that a Gennin would be able to get her down, the impressionable child made a mental note to never get stuck in a tree.

The three people continued on their way to pick up Temari. After a few minutes, Sakura was once again tugging at the hated sling. Finally Youko took her free hand, chiding, "Quit doing that." With her hand taken hostage, Sakura tried rolling her shoulder in an attempt to move the sling into a more comfortable position. Once again Youko rebuked her, but she kept doing it anyhow. She hated this stupid sling.

Before Sakura knew it, Yashamaru had his hand on her shoulder, holding it down. "What did your aunt say, Sakura? Quit doing that."

Sakura's face scrunched up as she exclaimed angrily, "But it itches—and it's not hanging right—and it feels weird!" Sakura then made an even weirder face as she shouted while tugging to free her hand from her aunt's grasp, "And my nose itches!" The moment her hand was free it flew to her face. At that same moment a nearby scream sundered through the afternoon air. Yashamaru's hand disappeared from Sakura's shoulder as he ran towards where the sound had come from, followed closely by Youko and Sakura.

They were met halfway up a hill by three boys, two of which Sakura recognized as the boys who had been with Kankuro and Akai the other day. All three boys tried to speak, but between their erratic breathing and their rush to all speak at the same time it was impossible to understand them. Yasamaru laid a hand on two of the boys while Youko moved to do the same to the remaining boy, helping them to calm down as they asked once more what was wrong. Sakura only barely noticed this, though, because not only did she recognize the boys, but she also realized that they were right by the park she and Gaara and Kankuro and Temari always played in.

Slipping away from the adults, Sakura ran to the top of the hill, her heart pounding at the sight that lay just beyond the hill. It was Gaara and Kankuro, rolling on the ground, hitting, kicking, and biting while sand whipped through the air. Sakura didn't stop to think, to wonder why the two boys were fighting, she dashed down the hill, gaining momentum as she ran. The air that sped by her head held muffled shouts of angry words like 'I hate you', 'I don't want your stupid apology' and 'I don't want to be your brother'. Sakura had nearly made it into the midst of the fight when she tripped and a wall of sand rose up, stopping her from falling into the brawl. The only problem was, her arm became pinned between her and the sand, making her inhale sharply.

Pushing the sand aside roughly, Sakura found that the boys hadn't even paused to look at her. Sakura's eyebrows flew together as she took a few deep breaths and then screamed, "Stop it!" For a moment the sand stood still as Gaara turned to look at her, surprise on his face—then Kankuro kicked him and the fight resumed. First it was all those annoying tests, with their poking and prodding, then there was the detestable sling that was bugging the living daylights out of her, and now this… This was too much…

Sakura's mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: she was fed up with these brothers and their pointless scuffle. Sakura didn't see Yashamaru and Youko rushing down the hill to save her and Kankuro from Gaara and his sand. Sakura didn't hear the shouts of either the boys or the adults. Sakura simply strode forward in what the children watching on the hill would later call a brave and selfless act. Grabbing blindly she pulled one boy out of the fray by the back of his shirt and plopped him—Kankuro—down on the sand, screaming, "Both of you stop it RIGHT NOW!" Gaara screeched to a halt, one hand and plenty of sand prepared to strike. Sakura glared at his upraised hand, "What are you thinking? You not supposed to hit your brother!"

"Be quite!" Kankuro shouted from behind her, "What do you think I am _a damsel in distress_?" Sakura staggered as the older brother pushed her aside, "I don't need to be protected by a _girl_!" Sakura fell…

…and then all hell broke loose as the sands whipped forward with renewed anger.

* * *

I know it's been a while since the last chapter, but now that it's summer I should have more time to type (though I'm still busy with work, I at least don't have classes).

Reviews and constructive criticism shall be invited to the sleepover, flamers, however, shall be banned along with all their hate-filled words. Now, onto the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: MaroonAngel of Darkness, general zargon, crazyviper88, SnowWolfSpirit (Thank you for giving me your ideas about Yashamaru. I will keep them in mind when I get to that part), & Reibuki Shihaisha for reviewing!


	18. Distracted Thoughts

Disclaimer: I'm writing in English…what do you think that means?

Chapter 18: Distracted Thoughts

_Sakura fell…and then all hell broke loose as the sands whipped forward with renewed anger._

Sakura's eyes widened in shock for a moment, not understanding why Gaara was angry again. She knew that Kankuro hadn't meant to knock her over and he wasn't trying to hurt her…not to mention she wasn't even slightly injured from the fall…not that that should have mattered, brothers shouldn't be fighting anyway… Sakura stood up quickly, shouting for Gaara to stop. As had happened before, his eyes only flicked to her, his sand didn't stop moving as Kankuro dodged the incoming blow.

Sakura's hands fisted as Kankuro dodged yet another wave of sand, the arm in the sling stinging with the hand movement. Why wasn't Gaara stopping? Couldn't he see that what he was doing was wrong? When Kankuro tripped and fell Sakura didn't have time to think, she yelled the first thing that came to her mind as she ran between the two boys. "Stop it or I—I won't talk to you again!"

The sand pulled back as if it had been stung, coiling around Gaara, whose face had gone pale and his eyes wide. Sakura stared down her best friend, crossing her good arm over the one in the sling. She would not tolerate the two fighting anymore. Gaara knew it too. The sand dropped out of the air as Gaara started slowly towards Sakura, speeding up as he went until he was hugging her around the waist, having remembered at the last moment to avoid her injured arm.

"I'm sorry," whispered the little red haired boy, "please don't be angry." Sakura stared down at him silently. "I won't do it again…do you want me to promise? I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" When Sakura didn't answer immediately, tears started forming in his eyes. Then she smiled and the liquid disappeared just as quickly as it had come. When she patted him on the head, he felt as if the sun had suddenly cut through a thunderstorm, warming him who had been on the verge of a hypothermic death. A death known as the loss of his only friend. A death he had nearly brought upon himself.

"Good job Gaara, now," Sakura turned around to his brother, taking his hand and helping him stand. Without releasing Kankuro's hand, Sakura wiggled out of Gaara's hug and then looked at him expectantly. What she was expecting, the little red head had no clue.

Kankuro did. "Oh, no you don't." the brunet stated, stepping away from her and Gaara as best he could with his hand still being held. "I'm not going to apologize to that m—"

The moment Sakura realized what Kankuro was going to say she shouted heatedly, "Do it or I'll tell Temari!"

Kankuro propped one fist on his hip as he barked, "Yeah, and what do you think she'll do about it." When Sakura blinked in surprise, a smirk broke out on his face, so sure was he of his victory.

Sakura stood staring for a few moments more and then she answered thoughtfully, "Well…knowing Temari, she'll probably go find your hidden stash of puppets …" Kankuro blanched—he knew all too well what an angry Temari would do if she found his newly made puppets. He would never see them in one piece again if she got her hands on them. Sakura, unaware of just how serious her threat was, continued, "…and she'll probably hide them or—"

"I get it!" He interjected quickly. Turning his eyes briefly to his younger brother he said, "I'm sorry, ok, now let go of my hand, Sakura."

The green eyed child smiled happily but didn't let go. Rather, she pulled him by the wrist closer to Gaara, then kept the arm outstretched, letting his hand dangle like damp laundry on the line. This time it was Gaara who understood what Sakura was wanting. He hurried to stick his hand out and shake his brother's hand civilly, fearing that if he didn't his best and only friend might just decide to not talk to him after all.

Kankuro wasn't so eager to please, but when Gaara let go of his hand he didn't run away as he wanted to. Instead he looked at Sakura from the corner of his eye, hoping she would never mention his puppets in front of his sister. For a moment he wondered how she even knew he had a secret stash of the first puppets he had made himself, but then she was hugging him, flapping her arm, the one bound by the sling, as if telling Gaara to come join the hug. To Kankuro's surprise, as well as all those watching, he did—as if the two of them hadn't just been trying to half-kill each other mere moments before.

A cheer went up from the hilltop—not that any of the children who were hugging noticed. Yashamaru did, though, as did Youko, who was being held back from rushing to Sakura's side by her superior. "What's going on?" the woman asked, her voice wavering along with her knees. Yashamaru didn't answer right away as he listened to what else he could hear from the hilltop.

"…told the truth…really can stop him…amazing…tell them about this…"

The medic's mind raced from the barely audible voices that were coming from above, to Youko's question, to what he had just witnessed, to what he had already been planning, to how his plans had suddenly changed. They finally settled on what all this really meant. Abruptly he felt both heavy and light at the same time—as if a burden had been taken off his shoulders only to be passed onto someone else…someone way too young and innocent for the burden…someone like Youko's one and only niece.

"…finally safe… long as you don't hurt h…good thing she came…under control now …"

Youko's fingers digging into the skin of his arm reminded Yashamaru that he was holding Youko back, though, now that he thought about it, she didn't look like she could stand on her own at the moment. Moving his other arm to help support the stunned Youko, Yashamaru returned his eyes to his nephews and Sakura. What they had walked in on had only just been the beginning of a fit, but Sakura had been able to stay Gaara's hand without getting injured herself. Yashamaru could have stopped this tantrum too, but not with the ease of Sakura's successful attempt, nor could he have likely done so without someone getting hurt. She had.

"…maybe we should thank her…but she's the reason Sensei…she saved us…could be dangerous…it'll be fine, she's still…"

The boys' voices were getting closer. As they continued chattering Yashamaru couldn't help but feel it was silly to put all their hopes on the tiny shoulders of a five-year-old. With that thinking, though, he knew it had been even worse to have placed the hope of their village in the body of a newborn baby. It was silly and frightening and stupid…but there was no other choice. Not then, not now. If there had been, Yashamaru knew Karura would never have allowed her husband to all but kill the life she had worked so hard to bring into this world. If she had been alive, Yashamaru knew his sister would also be against using Sakura like a tool to control Shukaku's host. But that choice didn't exist, his sister _wasn't_ alive …and no one else could manage Gaara except Sakura. There were no alternatives. There never were. Fate wasn't that kind.

Yashamaru stiffened, pushing away his thoughts of his sister. Now was not the time to reminisce on the good, let alone the bad—he had a situation to clean up. "Gaara! Kankuro!" Both boys jumped, tearing away from Sakura's hug. Yashamaru narrowed his eyes as he looked over his bruised nephews. The boys fidgeted, unable to look him in the eye. "I am very disappointed in you. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?" One of the two whispered 'he started it'. Surprisingly, that one was Gaara.

The sand-haired man's eyes narrowed even more as he stated stoutly, "I don't care who started it. You are both in trouble." Turning to Youko, who now appeared more grounded, if a bit shaken up, Yashamaru said, "Would you mind picking up my niece? I need to escort these two home." The sound of sand sliding down the hill as the boys whose voices had been drifting on the wind earlier neared made him pause for only half a second. Pulling away from Youko he turned back to his nephews, "You're grounded, now come along."

* * *

The walk home was silent, not that anyone noticed. Sakura dragged her feet through the sand, letting her aunt pull her along by her good hand. She had been all excited for the sleep over earlier, but now her mind was filled with Gaara and Kankuro's fight. She felt responsible for their getting in trouble, though she knew that if she had said so aloud Youko would have reminded her that it had nothing to do with her. Youko also would have added blame towards a certain possessed party as well as issuing a warning to avoid said party, but she didn't—not only had Sakura never mentioned it, but even if she had, Youko wouldn't have noticed.

Sakura's aunt's mind was in turmoil. If Yashamaru hadn't physically stopped her, she would have run straight into that fight to pull Sakura out of it. She didn't care what anyone else said, she knew that monster boy was dangerous, and she didn't want her precious niece anywhere near him. He was sure to be the death of her. She was terribly glad that Sakura had friends, it was even better that they were the Kazekage's children since that could only help her settle into Suna life, but why in the world did she have to associate with the two children's little brother. Sakura really was too kind hearted, too naive. She'd even begged her mother to take her to that bully, Hayato's, funeral even though the boy had beaten her into the emergency room.

Youko's hands clutched her charge's hands tightly at the memory of the tears Sakura shed for that bully-boy, so tightly that the circulation in Temari's hand was nearly cut off. Not that the pigtailed girl noticed. Her eyes stared vacantly ahead, her head in the sky as her feet left divots in the sand. If not for the hand pulling her along, she likely would have stopped walking altogether…that, or she would have dashed off in a mad sprint without any thought of where she was heading or who saw her or how much trouble she would get in for running off on her own. Her thoughts right now weren't exactly linear or logical, and for her, this was an unheard of state. She didn't know what to do with herself as she viewed her dance lessons over and over again in her mind, the image clearer than the houses their little group was passing as they neared their destination.

No one really seemed to realize that they had arrived until after they had been ushered in by Haruka and Shin. Youko released the girls' hands as Haruka told them to go play in Sakura's room until it was time for dinner. Once they were out of sight, Youko sat down hard on a chair, bringing her shaky hands up to her face. Since when had her hands been shaking? Probably since she first saw Sakura dashing towards that monster-boy and his accursedly deadly sand. "I could have lost her." Youko mumbled, more to herself than her brother or his wife.

"What are you—?"

"What do you—?"

Their voices were so in union that Youko couldn't differentiate between what her brother had said and what Haruka had. She didn't even get a chance to attempt to sort out the voices when she felt something cold hit her hand. Shocked, Youko shot up straight to find Kirsche presenting her with a cup of water. She was about to say thanks as she reached for the cup, but it was pulled back as Kirsche said something that would have made Youko drop it.

"There's no way you would have lost Sakura," Taking the frozen hand, Kirsche gently wrapped the woman's fingers around the cup before adding, "so take a few calming breaths, then drink up. We don't want you to start hyperventilating." Youko did as told, her mind too chaotic to wonder how Kirsche had figured out what she was talking about when it was clear Haruka and Shin, who knew her better than this near-stranger, hadn't understood. Shin didn't wonder at it, though, he had recognized long ago that Kirsche was exceptionally observant, perhaps even more so than many of his ninja friends.

However, Haruka was the only one to realize that Kirsche had come bearing a cup of water without having even been in the room to see that Youko had arrived, let alone notice that she was shaken. But then, she was also the only one who knew about the Hoshi's biggest secret. Haruka almost asked what had happened, not really caring whether it was Youko or Kirsche who answered, though she knew it would be less suspicious if Kirsche didn't reveal herself. Instead, a knock sounded, making Youko choke and almost drop her cup as she jumped in surprise. Haruka patted the woman's back as her husband said stoically, "I will get the door." As he disappeared down the hall, squeals of laughter could be heard from Sakura's room, making all three women smile at their gaiety.

Shin came back with Yashamaru in tow. When he didn't take the seat offered to him their smiles fell and the room went silent. Looking at the faces before him, the medic said solemnly, "After today's events I don't believe it would be safe to remove Sakura from Suna," A high-pitched squeak emanated from Youko, towards which Yashamaru added, "not even for her own safety." Youko made to protest, but Shin placed a silencing hand on her shoulder. Instead, it was Haruka who spoke, irritation creeping into her voice.

"And how long have you been contemplating such a move on our behalf?"

As if he wasn't being accused of sticking his nose where Haruka felt it didn't belong, Yashamaru answered soberly, "Since it became clear that Shukaku's recent appearances were in part connected to her and that such appearances were placing the girl in the way of danger."

Youko snorted, "That was clear since the beginning." Although her voice sounded angry, Yashamaru knew better. He could read in her posture and the way her hands held tightly to a cup of water that rather than angry, she was scared. "That monster should never have been allowed near the villagers, let along Sakura." Her voice raised an octave as she quivered, "What if he had killed her!" Yashamaru gave what he hoped was a calming smile and began to say something, only to be interrupted by Haruka clearing her throat.

"Excuse me, but might you be so kind as to enlighten me as to what in the world you are talking about. What is this nonsense about Sakura being in danger from this Shukaku person? I don't remember meeting anyone by that name nor do I remember giving you leave to decide whether my child will—" A hand on her shoulder silenced Haruka. Looking up into her husband's grey eyes, she crossed her arms and huffed, "Yes, Shin?"

"You should remember the name," mentioned to calm man, "though you are right that the two of you have not been introduced."

"No," stated Youko hotly "and let us hope they never get to be." Yashamaru noticed that the water in her cup was rippling, revealing that the woman was shaking even though she didn't look it.

Shin continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Shukaku was mentioned back when Hayato had put Sakura in the hospital. It was in order to stop…him…that Yashamaru required Sakura's help." Turning to the man himself, Shin asked as if he already knew the answer, "And it is because Sakura was found to be able to…calm…him that you find it best for her to stay in Suna?"

Yashamaru nodded. "Partially, yes, though there is more to it than that…" Noting that Haruka's foot was tapping and that the young woman was pointedly glaring at him, Yashamaru sighed. "I suppose I need to explain things better…I cannot expect you to heed any warning I give if you do not understand why it is being given." This time when offered a seat, Yashamaru took it as he dove into his explanation about the relationship between Shukaku and Sakura and how their interactions had been progressing to the point of no return.

By the time he finished, it was late and Haruka had gone deathly pale.

* * *

Temari was jolted out of her daze when she heard Sakura sniffle. "Hey!" she gasped, running over to where Sakura sat on her bed and tackle-hugged her. "No crying, remember!" It was not a question and the stubborn girl was not about to let her pink haired friend go against her. She proceeded to tickle the younger girl until she was squealing with laughter. Only once she was sure that her friend wouldn't start crying did she relent. Rolling to the edge of the bed, Temari asked, "What was that about?"

Sakura rolled onto her side so that she could look at the blond girl. "I yelled at your brothers…they were fighting and I yelled at them and then they got in trouble."

Temari rolled her eyes, "And let me guess, you think it's your fault they're in trouble don't you?" Sakura had only begun to nod when her friend started rolling from side to side, laughing. Without warning, she rolled on top of Sakura and tickled her again, saying between laughs, "I'm sure the fight was Kankuro's fault. Now cheer up, I have something to tell you!" Temari rolled off the bed to bounce in place in front of Sakura. "Guess what?"

Not having a clue what it could be, Sakura said the first thing that came to her mind. "Kankuro said he was a damsel…" It was meant to be a guess, but before she finished saying it she realized that he really had said so…though there had been a bit before that saying that he wasn't, but still, "…a damsel in distress…?" Sakura's voice trailed off as a huge grin split open Temari's face.

"I wish...but no, even better…"

* * *

Still busy, but the more reviews I get the more inspired I feel to write. Some of this was hard to write, but other parts flowed easily onto the paper—I hope this is a good sign and I also hope you liked the chapter.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to roll around laughing their heads off as Temari tickles them...flamers are welcome to simply lose their heads. Now, onto the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Reibuki Shihaisha, MaroonAngel of Darkness, Melyss (thank you), shadow miko (you'll find out), & SakuItachi1 for reviewing!


	19. Discoveries

Disclaimer: Last I checked, still no Katakana…

Chapter 19: Discoveries

_Not having a clue what it could be, Sakura said the first thing that came to her mind. "Kankuro said he was…a damsel in distress…?" Sakura's voice trailed off as a huge grin split open Temari's face. _

"_I wish, but no, even better…"_

Sakura could only stare as Temari pulled something out of the sash around her waist. It was a fan. "You might not believe it," the blond girl said in a hushed voice, "but I saw this," she indicated the simple paper fan in her hands, "be used as a weapon!" Temari was right, she wasn't sure she could believe that such a delicate fan could become anything other than what it was. Noting Sakura's disbelief, Temari added, "I didn't believe it when she—that is the visitor to those stupid dance lessons that Uncle Yashamaru told us about—anyhow, she used her own fan to cut through a piece of cloth and everyone thought it was a trick and so she asked if anyone had a fan of their own for her to demonstrate with and obviously I had this one and—it was amazing…"

Temari's eyes glazed over once more as she drifted off into silence. Finally Sakura had to tug on her hand and ask what happened next. Temari smiled as she looked at the white fan in her hands. "She cut the cloth with a flick of her wrist; just a flick, that's all it took for the cloth to become two…and my fan wasn't even damaged when she gave it back to me. Then she pulled out a different fan and showed it to us. It was twice as big as mine and it had a longer handle and it used bright red cloth instead of paper…but that wasn't what really made it so cool. It was made of metal—and the tips of the metal stuck up above the cloth like many little blades. And you know what?" Sakura shook her head from side to side as she leaned forward on the bed, eyes large. Temari smirked, then whispered, "She threw it."

"No," gasped Sakura, her hands flying to her mouth, "what happened?"

Temari shrugged, but her smirk didn't disappear. "What do you think a dance class visitor would do? She danced…and there was this bamboo and at one point as she was spinning there was a flash of red—that's all I saw—and the bamboo was in ten pieces—ten! And she just kept dancing as if she hadn't done anything—and I don't think more than three of us even noticed that the bamboo had been cut before the end of her dance when she flicked her wrist like this," Temari demonstrated using her open fan to blow a gust of wind at Sakura's face, then in the same motion snapped it closed, "and the bamboo was knocked over and scattered over the stage! Madame Fancy Pants was almost in hysterics."

Both girls giggled; though Sakura had to first ask what hysterics were before she could truly understand why she was laughing. As they settled down, Sakura turned her head to one side questioningly, "Why was your teacher so upset? Wasn't that why the bamboo was there?"

"No," Temari sniggered, "it was for later on in class—don't know for what, though, since it was thankfully no longer useable. But, anyhow, after that she had ten of us throw the pieces into the air—and guess what!" Temari didn't even bother pausing longer than it took to take a breath, "Somehow she cut all of them in half—don't look at me like that, Sakura, this was different from what she did before—she didn't even touch them with the fan! I don't know how she did it but…right before class really started I went up to ask her how she did it and you know what she said? That if I really wanted to she'd be willing to teach me!"

After a moment of silence Sakura asked, "Even if the dance was great, why would you want more lessons? I thought you hated dance class?"

"I do," Temari said, nodding her head, "but this was different…this wasn't so much a dance as…well…a way to make a weapon look beautiful." Temari shook her head then shrugged. "I could actually use this, unlike the pointless stuff Madame Fancy pants is always forcing us to do."

"Oh…" Sakura mumbled, not quite sure what Temari meant…but then again, she had never had dance lessons before, so she had no clue what kind of things Temari was learning aside from Temari had told her about. "Ah…um…ok…"

Temari rolled her eyes at Sakura's answer and thought about pointing out that Sakura wouldn't understand what it was like to find the perfect weapon since she would never be a ninja, but then she remembered Sakura wanted to be just that; instead Temari changed her mind and the subject. "I'm hungry!" Her announcement was met with an audible gurgle from not her stomach, but Sakura's.

"I'm hungry too." Sakura said as she jumped to her feet. Taking her friend's hand, Sakura added, "Come on, let's go see what Auntie Youko's making!" A glance out the open window told Temari it was already dark outside—normally dinner would have already been served, though Sakura didn't seem to realize that. As their feet pattered down the stairs Temari heard the adult's voices cut off abruptly. Sakura mustn't have notice because she barged right into the living room, dragging Temari with her as he asked jubilantly, "Auntie, what's for dinner?"

Youko shot to her feet, but it was someone else who held Temari's attention. Why was her uncle here? Hadn't he taken Kankuro and Gaara back home? "Dinner?" mumbled Youko, then she stumbled, "Oh…ah, yes, um…we got a little…distracted…" Temari noticed her uncle glance at Sakura's mother as Youko said this and for the first time Temari glanced at the silent woman. She looked like she had seen a ghost. What had the adults been talking about?

Whatever it was, her uncle clearly didn't want them to find out because he hurried over to stand by Youko, blocking her and Sakura's view of the silver haired woman. He suggested that they go out to eat, but of course they first had to get the children cleaned up and ready. He then proceeded to herd them out of the room. They were joined moments later by Youko who, when Yashamaru gave her a strange look, said vaguely that Kirsche and her brother were keeping Sakura's mother company. Yashamaru looked satisfied with that answer, but Temari knew her uncle better. If he hadn't asked for more details even though it was clear, to her at least, that he desired more, then it was just more evidence that there was something he was trying to keep her and Sakura from knowing.

* * *

Kirsche patted Haruka's shoulder comfortingly and Shin held her hand as the woman remained frozen in place. After a moment a terrified whisper passed the pale woman's lips. "He's a jinchuuriki…he…he could kill her…" Shin squeezed her hand. Haruka looked up into her husband's face and whispered, "She's friends with someone who could kill her!"

Shin's grey eyes softened as he spoke. "He could, but he has not. Plenty of others also have the ability to kill her. Some have tried, but none have succeeded. From what Yashamaru has said, the reason is because of him. It is Gaara who has saved her from more than just physical danger—he is her best friend."

Haruka grasped his hand with both of hers desperately. "I know…I know he is…but what if he loses control? Then it won't matter that they're friends. The tailed beasts are monsters, they don't discriminate between friends and foes and my little girl will be dead!"

Shin shook his head and spoke soothingly, "Blades do not discriminate either, and there are many more of them in the world. It is who wields them that matters, and from what Yashamaru has told us, Sakura will be safer with Gaara than if she were to be taken away from here and him."

Haruka's nails dug into Shin's hand as her grip tightened. Her eyes were wide and spooked as she part-warbled and part-sobbed, "Safer, not safe! And don't you go telling me numerical technicalities. There may be more blades, but any ninja can stop a blade, where as if that beast takes over not even Yashamaru could save her life!"

Shin brushed the strand of silver hair that had fallen into his wife's face back behind her ear comfortingly. He was mumbling encouraging words under his breath when a hand landed on both his shoulder and his wife's. Shin froze at the contact. He was not accustomed to anyone beside his family touching him in any way. His wife's sobs trailed to a close at Kirsche's touch as well, though why, he didn't know—she was much more open with the touchy-feely thing than he, and a mere touch on the shoulder would not usually have stilled her when she was in a panic.

Kirsche's voice lightly floated through the still air as she moved so that she could look Haruka in the eyes, "Breathe…you must calm down before you start hyperventilating." With agile fingers Kirsche usurped Shin's hand from his wife's clutches by taking both of Haruka's in her own. Haruka tried to sputter something about being calm when Sakura's life was in danger—Kirsche cut her off with a dazzling and confident smile that had no place in such a conversation. When she spoke, it was with just as much incomprehensible confidence. "Sakura's life is not in danger."

As Shin watched his wife transformed from a terrified wreck to a hopeful mother. "Are you sure?" Haruka whispered, leaning forward so far Shin momentarily feared that she would fall over.

"I am," stated Kirsche bluntly. Shin knew there was no way the young woman could know for sure any more than he or Yashamaru could; however, as Kirsche went on to state outright that Gaara would never kill Sakura, Shin wondered if she wasn't on to something. His wife's tenseness was dissipating and color was returning to her features. Perhaps all she really needed was assurance that Sakura would be safe—it didn't matter if it was a true or even likely assessment of the future—it was hope she needed, not could and should be's. "…I can't say anything about her getting hurt—" Kirsche was saying, "—children are masters in that area, but…" The Hoshi shrugged and then her smile shifted from confident to playful, "…well, we were all children once—speaking of children, if we don't hurry the children will be prepared to go eat and we won't be."

Shin nodded, helping his wife to stand. As he led her out of the room and turned out the lights, he wondered how Kirsche always seemed to know the right things to say.

* * *

The little shadow pressed itself as hard as it could against the earthen house under the window where those inside would not see it if they chanced to look out. No light would betray the shadow if it stayed put, though the shadow knew that if it wasn't careful other things could betray it, things much more dangerous than a mere beam of light in the dark of near-night. It wasn't supposed to be here, listening in on private conversations…and what it was overhearing was telling it why it had always been warned against doing so.

Little shadow hands tightened around a little shadow heart. The little shadow heart beat more and more furiously as a male voice floated, barely audible, to the little shadow. The voice spoke of fears and danger, of life and loss, of plans and doubt, but most importantly, the voice spoke of whether to stay or go. If not for the giggling the little shadow could hear from the open window on the other side of the house, the little shadow might have acted rashly. What it would have done, not even the shadow knew, but the giggling grounded it. Everything was going to be fine.

The little shadow looked down at the sand it had grasped unknowingly in its hand when it had heard the voice mention leaving and then clasped the hand closed again around the granules. Everything would be fine because the little shadow would make sure of it. The shadow didn't care if it got in trouble—though it would try to get through the night unnoticed—there was no way the little shadow would allow the owner of the voice, or anyone else for that matter, to take a part of its life away from it…the light of its world. That source of light was the whole reason the little shadow could exist… '_After all_', the little shadow wondered as it waited for the light to disappear from the window, '_what was a shadow without its light?_'

The giggling that had been audible before vanished into nothingness. The reason became clear when the little shadow heard one of the giggler's voices come through the window it was pressed beneath. There was more talking and bodies moving until it became clear that only a few people were left in the room. The male voice from before was missing as was the giggler—they were planning to go somewhere and soon everyone would join them. As the little shadow remained hidden in its counterpart beneath the window, it felt relieved. The group would be coming back from this trip, and the little shadow hoped that by then it would have come up with a way to protect its little light from ever disappearing from its life.

When the window finally went dark and the room silent, the little shadow disappeared, leaving total darkness in its stead.

* * *

Haruka flipped the lights off despite the twin squeals of protest. "Go to bed, girls," came the stern reply from the door, "I'll be checking in on you latter and you had better be sleeping. It's already long past your bedtime." Once both girls were tucked under the covers the door shut until only a crack of light penetrated the children's room. "Good night."

The two girls waited a few moments to make sure Haruka was gone before Temari giggled and then whispered, "Today was fun!"

Sakura nodded her head, her messy hair getting even messier where it rubbed on her pillow. "Yeah," she agreed, yawning, "I can't believe mommy let us paint our nails."

Temari pulled her hand out from beneath the covers to look at her nails. In the dark she could hardly see their outline, but the blond knew that each nail was a different color. For obvious reasons neither her father nor her uncle had nail polish, so this was as much a new experience for the seven-year-old as it was for her friend. "I'm glad she did," she whispered to the night air. This time she didn't receive a reply. Blinking tiredly, Temari found that Sakura was already asleep. Her eyelids fell…once…

…twice…

…and then shot open hours later. She could have sworn she heard a sound. Groggily she rubbed her eyes—was there something at the window? Sitting up she pushed the hair out of her face to find the open window empty of all but the stars. Not even bothering to shake her head Temari flopped back down and feel asleep almost immediately. The next morning, when she found sand in the bed—sand that had not been there before—Temari tiredly wondered how they had tracked sand in to bed with them. She wouldn't remember the nighttime visitor, though, until much later. This time, though, she would know who it must have been. The only question would be why—a question she wouldn't dare ask. Sometimes her brother frightened her more than she liked to admit.

* * *

The next day Temari walked with Sakura and Youko to school, then left with the nurse to meet up with her uncle at the hospital. She had confided in the pink haired child that she was going to convince her uncle to pay for her lessons with the fan lady from the previous day. She also mentioned that she hoped these new lessons would replace her current dance lessons—though that only had about a fifty percent chance of success, unlike the attempt to get new lessons, which, according to Temari, had nearly a hundred percent chance of being successful. How the pigtailed girl knew that, Sakura had no idea, but she gave her friend a thumbs up and wished her luck as they parted at the school gates.

It wasn't until she stepped into the classroom that she remembered she hadn't received any of her homework that she had missed while she was in the hospital. Trembling, she went up to the homeroom teacher, trying to ignore all the children that were staring at her, or perhaps they were staring at her arm, since it was in a sling. "Uhm…" Sakura choked out, her voice barely audible, "Nakagawa-sensei?"

The older woman turned, her face as stern as her voice, "Speak up, child…louder!" Sakura bit her lip, unable to help throwing a look at one group of eyes that seemed glued on her. If it had only been that one group, perhaps Sakura might have been able to do as commanded, but the whole room was staring at her. The pink haired child shrank into herself as she looked back at her homeroom teacher—the woman's fist was on her hip and her eyes were narrowed in a glower. Suddenly her eyes snapped away from Sakura, "What are you all doing standing around like lightning struck foul—pull out your homework and if it isn't finished yet, it had better be before the bell rings." When some of the eyes continued to stare, she barked, "Now, or there will be a pop quiz!" The room filled with bustling and mumbling and a general sense of pop-quiz-fear. In a voice that wouldn't carry, the woman turned her stone gaze back to Sakura, "Now, speak."

Relief flooded Sakura as she realized that her homeroom teacher, regarded by most her classmates as the epitome of terror, had just saved her from everyone's gaze. Smiling grandly, Sakura said with awe rather than fear, "Thank you, Nakagawa-sensei…but, um, I don't have any homework to turn in—"

The older woman broke in, "I know that. Your homework is sitting on my desk." When Sakura glanced at the bare desk at the front of the room, she added with a snort, "Not there, it's in _my_ classroom, not in this silly playground that claims to be a classroom. Since we have been informed that your broken arm will leave you incapable of participating in gym class you will spend that time with me. You can work on it then." Sakura opened her mouth, but the woman must have thought she was going to argue, because she interrupted, "No buts—you will do it then, no sooner, no latter—it's due tomorrow. Now, get to your seat." Just then, the bell rang. Sakura slipped into her seat just as her teacher pulled out a clipboard and took attendance. Thankfully there was no pop quiz.

Throughout the day Sakura could feel people staring at her. At first it made her clam up with nerves and fear, but as gym class grew nearer she relaxed. Her classmates weren't speaking to her, but that wasn't new. However, what was new was that when she dropped her eraser someone else picked it up and returned it to her. Her classmate even smiled at her before she returned her eyes to the board. Because of this Sakura was in a state of blissful shock as she was led, gliding down the hall to her homeroom teacher's actual classroom in the upperclassmen's wing of the school.

When she walked in she found herself being observed by what felt like hundreds of eyes. "Eyes on your tests!" Nakagawa-sensei's voice boomed through the tiny room. Fifteen heads snapped back as the eyes—only thirty, not the hundreds they had seemed like moments before—sped over the paper before them. As the sound of pencils scratching on paper filled the room, Sakura's homeroom teacher motioned her over to her, a small stack of papers in her hand. She stuffed them in Sakura's hand briskly, stating quietly, as if she hadn't just yelled at the class, "If you have questions, ask."

Sakura had almost finished the entire packet when the bell rang, signaling the end of Sakura's gym class and Nakagawa-sensei's math class and the beginning of lunch for the both of them. "Tests on my desk—Hiru, I mean now, not later; time is up even if you are not done. Everyone form a line at the door…you too Sakura, I'm taking you to the cafeteria." Sakura jumped at the sound of her name.

Looking down at her last few math problems, Sakura wanted to ask for a few more minutes—she was almost done, but her homeroom teacher's demanding voice and outstretched hand made her think twice. She didn't want to be yelled at like that Hiru kid had been. Instead, Sakura put her homework in the proffered hand and said a touch louder than she had that morning, "Um…I brought a lunch…but…" the look on Nakagawa-sensei's face made her go quite. The woman was looking at the packet in her hand as if it had not been what she was expecting.

Sighing, the older woman set the pack on her desk with a thud and then grabbed Sakura's hand with the one she had just vacated. Without another word she dragged the stunned girl to the front of the line and then out of the classroom. Her students followed like hyper, not to mention ravenous, ducklings. To Sakura's surprise, she could barely feel their few cursory glances. It seemed the upperclassmen found her less interesting than the prospect of food. Sakura smiled—she liked this group of upperclassmen better than her own class.

Once the older children had swarmed past Sakura into the cafeteria she found herself being led back out again. "Wh-what?" she stumbled, both verbally and physically as they sped down the crowded hallway of children heading in the opposite direction.

"Stick close to me." Sakura didn't get any more explanation until they had already reached Sakura's classroom. "Get your lunch, child. Hurry now." Rather than hurry, Sakura rustled around in her bag, searching for her lunch halfheartedly. Even though Nakagawa-sensei was loud and always barking orders, Sakura felt safer with her than she did in the cafeteria with the swarms of children who wanted nothing to do with her.

The older woman's foot started tapping, "Speed it up, I have to eat too, you know." Sakura's tummy growled as she slowly drew out her lunch from her bag. "You act as if you don't want to eat—and you're too young to be on a diet…shish…" Sakura forced herself to return to her teacher's side, though her feet dragged as she did so. This time the girl didn't shrink back when she saw the strange face her teacher was making as she looked her over like a math problem that seemed a little off. Without warning she clicked her tongue and grabbed the food from Sakura's hand, freeing it to take hold of the woman's other hand. "Come along," she stated briskly as she pulled Sakura down the hall back to her classroom.

It wasn't until Nakagawa-sensei plopped down at her desk and pulled out her own lunch that Sakura realized they were not going to go back to the cafeteria. Sakura was confused, but not so much so that she didn't understand when she was ordered to eat that her homeroom teacher was being kind to her. As if she had to give an explanation, the older woman said, "I told you that your homework is due tomorrow. You will finish it now before you get today's homework. Eat and then get to work. I don't want to hear another peep from you until you're finished."

That day's lunch was the best Sakura had eaten at school in a long time…even though none of her favorite foods were packed in it.

* * *

Yay, sweet ending. This chapter is longer than most of the ones I've written lately, and I seem to be updating approximately once a month, so I guess it's probably best to assume the next chapter will be coming out around mid August. I keep trying to get it done sooner, but life keeps getting in the way. I'm so happy to have gotten so many reviews this time, and I hope everyone will keep it up!

As always, reviews and constructive criticism is accepted with open arms and a nice warm hug. Flamers, however, due to their nature, shall be smothered rather than hugged so as to put out their flames. Now that we've got that settled, let's move on the the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: general zargon (thank you, but why do you say that the adults are idiot?), Melyss, MaroonAngel of Darkness, shadow miko, Reibuki Shihaisha (not quite), Tainted-Blossom (thank you, I'm glad you like this extended children's tale. Eventually there will be a time skip, though.), QuietShadowz (you guessed correctly about Temari, good job!), Flamestar & SnowWolfSpirit (yay) for reviewing!


	20. Possibilities

Disclaimer: Nope…No Hiragana…

Chapter 20: Possibilities

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin when the bell rang, signaling the end of recess. She hadn't gone out to play by herself after she finished her homework. Instead, she had stayed with her homeroom teacher and helped grade the tests she had handed out. Really all Sakura had been doing was looking at the answer sheet and then marking which questions had different answers before putting them in the pile for Nakagawa-sensei to look at. She had tried to understand the math that was swimming before her, but there were so many things that she didn't understand, things like the strange little slash with a small circle on either side and even one of those sideways plusses that she remembered Nakagawa-sensei having put up on the board during her detention.

"Ah," sighed the older woman, "I suppose it's time to return you to your class. Up, you go."

"Um…" Sakura began carefully as she stood up, "I can find my own way…"

"Hmph," came the immediate reply, "There's no reason for that, come along." Once again Sakura found the hand that wasn't in the sling being taken up as her homeroom teacher pulled her out the door. They didn't go back to Sakura's classroom as she'd expected, but rather they ended up outside where all the children were lining up to be led back to class. Sakura was about to be deposited with her teacher when a shrill voice called out.

"It's Pinky!" Sakura cringed as she recognized the name-caller's voice. Why couldn't Rei ever leave her alone? The sand haired boy, apparently unaware of her annoyance, called out again, "Billboard-brow is in trou—!" Rei had been holding onto the note, making it a sing-song derision, but was cut off abruptly.

"The one who will be in trouble is you, Rei Higa, if you leave your homework unfinished one more time." Nakagawa-sensei snapped, pushing Sakura towards her own teacher. If Sakura didn't know any better, she'd think that her homeroom teacher was protecting her. Thankfully, she did know better—Nakagawa-sensei just hated slackers. As if to prove this point, the older woman turned to Sakura and stated gruffly, "Get in line, child; I don't have all day."

Sakura hurried to the back of the line, almost falling when a foot—Rei's by the smirk on his face—found itself in her path. A hand caught her mid-fall and Sakura found herself face to face with the girl who had returned her eraser to her just that morning. If she remembered correctly, the girl's name was Hisako, though she didn't remember her last name. Without saying anything she stepped back and let Sakura enter the line ahead of her and, subsequently, behind Rei. It wasn't until they were walking down the crowded hallway that she heard a whisper by her shoulder. "Sorry," it was barely audible in the children-filled hallway, "my brother's an idiot."

It was the first thing any of her classmates (aside from Rei) had said to her all day.

* * *

The final bell rang and most of the students rushed to gather their things and pile out of the building. Sakura stayed sitting, compiling her homework—most of which she had already finished in class—as she waited for the crowds to die down. Looking over her spelling words as she waited, Sakura wanted to sigh. Cat, bat, bed…seriously, how old did they think she was, two? The same thing with the assigned reading—it was so simple and boring.

If she hadn't known that her homework back in Konoha had been of the same variety, she might have thought that this was just another way for people to pick on her. As it was, she still felt that adults underestimated five-year-olds—though, she realized, some people in class did seem to find it difficult, she couldn't comprehend why. Maybe like her they didn't want to stand out. Maybe most the kids in class were simply pretending not to understand any more than what their teachers thought they should…and those who weren't must just be slow to understand, because what they were being taught wasn't all that hard.

Finally the room was mostly cleared out—there were only three boys rough-housing and a few girls braiding each other's hair, all of whom, Sakura knew from experience, were waiting for their older siblings to come get them. Standing up, Sakura placed her backpack on her desk and started to put her homework inside, only to be interrupted when something hit her back, nearly making her fall over. Papers scattered all over the floor as Sakura tried to right herself and escape from under the weight of whoever had fallen into her.

"Ah," came a boy's voice as the weight on her back removed itself, "sorr—" The boy cut himself off when he caught sight of her pink hair. He gulped and backed away, looking wildly around the room as if searching for something.

Then a familiar voice cut through what might otherwise have become an awkward silence. "Sen, you should see the look on your face!"

Sakura would have expected such a statement to make the boy, Sen, blush, or even get angry, but instead he stumbled farther back from Sakura, his voice wavering in his retort, "Shut it, Rei, we don't all have death wishes."

Before Sakura knew it, Sen and the other boy he had been rough-housing with had evacuated the room, leaving Rei alone with the girls. Rei shouted after their backs, "Neither do I. You're just cowards!"

The boys shouted something in return as they ran down the hall, but Sakura couldn't hear it over another familiar voice. "Would you be quiet—stupid brother!" The last part was tacked on when Rei stuck out his tongue at Hisako, the girl who must be his twin. While the two continued to bicker, Sakura did her best to disappear as she got down on her knees and started gathering the fallen papers. She thought she had successfully escaped from being the center of her classmates' attention only to find, moments later, Hisako, her sand-colored hair now in three messy braids, handing her some more of her homework.

A tentative smile found its way to Sakura's face. She was about to thank the girl when Rei's voice once again shattered the near-silence, "Oi! What's this, Pinky?" He was flapping a paper in the air.

Sakura's fists clenched. She really wished he would stop calling her names, but despite her anger, she was too afraid to say anything about it. In fact, as Sakura became aware that everyone in the room was looking at her, she felt her throat clench so tightly she barely was able to squeeze out an answer, "Homework."

"Really?" Rei chided, "Because I haven't seen homework like this be—hey!" the boy shrieked as his sister snatched the paper from his hands. Without even looking at it Hisako handed it back to Sakura as her brother shouted protests. What Rei might have said or done next, Sakura didn't get to find out, because suddenly an older boy entered the room and grabbed him by the arm. "Let me go!"

"Hisako," snapped the brown-haired boy, "grab your stuff and get the loud-mouth's too." The older boy sent a glare in Sakura's direction, completely ignoring Rei's attempts to free his arm as he added, "And then catch up with us; mom is waiting outside." He then started dragging Rei out the door. "Come on, runt, let's get out of here." As they disappeared down the hall Sakura could have sworn she heard the older boy say something about the room being polluted.

Hisako rushed towards the door, her arms full of backpacks, but she paused in the doorway. Turning to look at Sakura, the sand-haired girl whispered quickly, "Sorry, we're not supposed to like you." And then she was off, running down the hallway after her brothers. For many minutes, Sakura could only stare after her, one hand, the one in the sling, holding the paper Hisako had rescued from Rei and the other half-way through the process of stuffing her homework into her bag. It wasn't until two additional older children came in looking for siblings that Sakura unfroze.

With her homework put away, Sakura shifted the lone paper from her bad hand to her good one, flipping it over so that she could see what Rei had been talking about. What she found was a page full of those fraction things Nakagawa-sensei had shown her before. Maybe when she was helping grade papers it had somehow landed on her pile of old homework…but she didn't remember there being any pages full of only fractions. Unsure of how it had gotten mixed in with her stuff, Sakura slipped her backpack on carefully and headed down the hall. She had to return the paper, since it clearly wasn't her math homework, which consisted entirely of addition problems that she had already completed.

* * *

Kirsche sat cross-legged on the roof of Youko's house, her eyes closed. Few people passing below noticed her, and those who did thought she was crazy. Their reasons differed, some feared the height, others the intense heat of the noon sun, but all agreed that no sane person would spend hours sitting on a roof in Suna during the summer. But then again, no one would think that a pink-haired outsider could be very bright to begin with. Kirsche smiled as she heard a young woman mumble something about sunstroke and burning to a crisp, though there was no one standing below her yet.

Tilting her face upwards, Kirsche soaked up nature's light as her eyes flickered at a frightening pace under her eyelids. She loved this time alone, it was the only time when she could truly scan time as thoroughly as she knew was necessary to find the best instance for Sakura to use the Scroll of the Circle. And though those who saw her might fear for her health, she was well aware that such strong sunlight could only help her in her quest for a specific point in time buried in the ever changing sands of the future.

For a moment Kirsche's eyes caught on a very blurry image of Sakura opening the Scroll and then a flash of a sea of trees. The Hoshi forced her eyes to move on, one hand flicking through the air as if to swat a bug in midair. That wasn't what she needed, though it had appeared to be around the right time. Pictures of varying degrees of blurriness flew before her eyes as sounds battered her ears, never resting on any one picture long enough for the scene to mean anything. The sounds melded into a roar that was nearly deafening, but even so Kirsche managed to not miss anything to do with Sakura. Sakura running, Sakura walking, Sakura tripping, Sakura not tripping…there was so much to see, so much that an instant later could be exactly the opposite of what had just been shown, so much that would never come to pass…

Suddenly, even though Sakura wasn't present, Kirsche's eyes froze on an explosion…no, ten explosions…the same one ten times all at once, but not the same. '_I'll need to do something about that…probably have to tamper with it…_' Kirsche thought distantly. Now there were only three explosions, _'…much better…much easier to manipulate to the right path…though how…_' The picture started to change, following Kirsche's line of thought, only to skip and snag when both of Kirsche's hands shot out, moving separately from each other. '_No…_' Kirsche thought, her smile disappearing as she forced the images and her attention to return to the track she had been on before. '_…stick to Sakura's Awakening…_'

And then suddenly there it was, a vision that was hardly blurry at all. Sakura with a scroll rushing to fumble it open as Kirsche's fingers flew through signs, and then came a flash of a sandy landscape. Although there was nothing to point out the time, Kirsche instinctively knew when and where this would take place and that it just fit within the required boundaries. Her eyes flew open, seeking not the future but the present. Sakura was still at school. Kirsche blinked the picture into the background and then took in the angle of the sun—she didn't have much time.

Leaping with precision and agility Kirsche quickly made her way across town over the roofs. She made certain she went unobserved…it wouldn't do to make people suspicious of her, not when it would be Sakura who would have to live with that suspicion. After all, she would be leaving soon after she finished with Sakura's Awakening—how soon would depend on Sakura, but Kirsche could remain where she was for two months tops. The smile that had deserted Kirsche while she struggled with the future returned as she chuckled silently. It would be but one or two months, but she knew better than that…one month…two months…two years…it wouldn't matter…it would feel like an eternity to the five-year-old…but she would benefit from it.

Dropping to the ground in the shadows of the school yard Kirsche waited a moment for the last person in sight to disappear around a corner before she entered the building through an open window. Now inside, Kirsche could hear the conversation drifting through the hall from the room opposite the one she was in.

"…you think I wouldn't notice consistently missing questions. I cannot stand the idea of any student being lazy, but this went way beyond that, and I will not have brains being squandered on—" The annoyed teacher went silent when Kirsche slipped into the room. However, it only lasted a moment. "Who are you?" The 40-something-year-old woman's eyes took in Kirsche's appearance quickly, "And don't give me any nonsense about being the girl's mother or sister or cousin. For all that you look the part, I've met her mother and you are not her, nor do you look anything like a Kaneko."

Kirsche's smile was perfunctory. "I'm not any of the things you've named, though she and I do share the same blood. I am called Kirsche, and I have come for Sakura. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have somewhere we need to go."

"No." Came the immediate response as Sakura's homeroom teacher moved in front of Sakura, stopping the girl who had been about to go to Kirsche's side. "I don't know who you are, and I certainly won't let you take her out of here."

As Sakura tugged on her teacher's shirt, stumbling over her assurance that she knew this older, blue-eyed version of herself, Kirsche found herself contemplating using her Kekkei Genkai to halt the woman long enough to take Sakura out of the building…the clock was ticking, but then, in the background of her vision, she saw what would happen if she did and then if she didn't. Knowing that, she decided against it. Instead, she spoke carefully around the woman, more to buy time than anything else, "Sakura, there will soon be an opening, but if we don't hurry we will miss it."

"What are you—" This time, the door opening cut Nakagawa-sensei off. Kirsche hid her smile as the woman's eyes narrowed in annoyance, and then widened when she recognized who had stepped into the room. "…Mr. Kaneko?"

"Daddy!" cried Sakura, breaking from her teacher so that she could run and hug the man. Shin caught her up in a hug, a gentle smile on his face as he held her. "What are you doing here, daddy?" Sakura's muffled voice asked as she pressed her face into his shoulder.

"I was on my way to visit an old acquaintance and thought I would see if you would like to come as well. I am told that they have children near your age." Looking over Sakura's head, Shin's grey eyes landed on the other two in the room. "Ah, hello Kirsche, and…would you be Yuma Nakagawa, Ryu's older sister?"

The older woman nodded, but before she could say anything, Kirsche interrupted. "I'm afraid Sakura will have to wait to visit your acquaintance. As I was just informing Ms. Nakagawa, we have a place we need to go right now…for her training."

"I see," nodded the calm man as he placed Sakura back on the ground, "then I will not hold you back." As Kirsche took Sakura's hand, he asked, "Will you return in time for the evening meal?"

Kirsche's smile became mysterious as she led the little girl towards the door. "If we do, it will mean we arrived too late. Good day, and good luck on your meeting." As they disappeared from sight, Shin shook his head. Beside him, Yuma Nakagawa was doing the same, though he was sure it was for very different reasons.

"Are you sure you can trust your daughter with a woman incapable of giving a straight answer?"

"Yes," Shin answered with a chuckle, "My wife trusts her…and I have learned that her indirectness is proof of her trustworthiness." Sakura's homeroom teacher glared at Shin, her look clearly demonstrating that he was making things as clear as mud. "You just need to learn to read between the lines. What she doesn't say is just as important as what she does…and sometimes it's even more so." As the glare continued, Shin shrugged and prepared to leave, explaining, "There's only so much you can say without lying." He was almost to the door when the glare left the teacher's face.

"One moment, please," Nakagawa-sensei said as she went to her desk and pulled out a pile of papers, "I have to inform you about Sakura's school work." Handing off the pile to Shin, she added, "Look through these. This is all of Sakura's past homework that I could gather. I have highlighted the incorrect answers. Tell me if you notice anything."

Shin flipped through the papers obediently, his face drawing tight as he neared the middle of the pile, where he stopped and stated more to himself than to Sakura's teacher, "Every eighth problem is wrong. Sometimes there are others, but the eighth and sixteenth answers are always wrong, as are the few that go eight beyond that." Handing the pile back, he asked, "Do you know why this is?"

Nakagawa-sensei nodded once, "I fear so. Your daughter has been purposefully making sure that she never obtains a perfect score. I do not understand why, but I will not stand for it. That girl could go much farther with that brain of hers and instead she is squandering it pretending to be of average intelligence. I have given her additional math homework, work that should actually test her abilities, but I cannot do more than that. I suggest that you think about a solution to this…problem. A tutor, perhaps, if you can find one that will work with her."

Pausing, she then added as if she thought Shin was about to argue, "It wouldn't break the girl's heart to be taken out of this school entirely…her only friend here is learning, and that can be achieved just as easily at home. She might even do better there, where she wouldn't feel the need to lower herself to everyone else's standards…Think about it."

* * *

Kirsche held Sakura's hand as she walked as quickly as she could down the crowded streets, hoping Sakura would be able to keep up with her longer strides. As soon as they passed the main market square and could find an unpopulated space she would pick up the child and return to the rooftops to avoid unnecessary attention, but until then she was stuck at what felt like a snail's pace. They had to hurry. She could already see the chances of their arriving to their destination in time dwindling.

Finally the crowds died down, allowing Kirsche to speed up even more as Sakura lurched to keep up. Pin-prick pupils skimmed the roads ahead, searching for a deserted back corner while in the background of her vision remained the picture of Sakura's hopeful future.

As soon as they hit a side street, Kirsche began to run.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I had it done before this, but I had to wait for my editor to get to it before I could post it. Soon school will be starting, so that will cut back on my writing time, but I will try to have the next chapter up within a month's time.

Reviews and constructive criticism shall be welcomed with open arms, flamers, however, will be turned away. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: general zargon, MaroonAngel of Darkness (well, I think Sakura was always bright, it's just that her choices (especially about trying to fit in) curtailed her), Reibuki Shihaisha, Guest, & QuietShadowz (thank you so much for your review, you made me laugh!) for reviewing!


	21. It is Time

Disclaimer: Nope…No Kanji either…

Chapter 21: It is Time

Gaara trudged behind Temari and his uncle, wishing he wasn't still grounded. He wanted to go to the park and play, but instead he was being force to visit Temari's dance class, now that both of their formal schooling was over for the day. He would be forced to sit through hours of Temari and a bunch of other girls dancing around pointlessly. Kankuro had been lucky. He had puppet lessons with some relative of Akai's, so he got to skip out on the torture session.

Gaara's thoughts went to Sakura. She was still at school…which was strange, considering school should have already gotten out…but his sand couldn't be wrong. He shrugged the thought away; she probably just needed help with homework or something.

"Gaara, keep up or I'll have to hold your hand." The boy sped up enough to placate his uncle, but his thoughts turned back to Sakura when his sand—the very same sand he had left with her the night before—informed him that Sakura was moving. It soon became apparent that she wasn't heading towards their usual meeting place, but rather in his direction…or at least, something very close to his direction.

Temari's voice broke into his thoughts, "What are you grinning about?"

Gaara looked at her, then at Yashamaru who wasn't answering. Yashamaru kept walking steadily, his eyes distant. It didn't look like he had heard Temari at all. It was only when Gaara looked back and noticed where Temari was looking that he realized that he must be the one she was speaking to. "Nothing," he mumbled.

Temari rolled her eyes, but refrained from making a retort. From the way she crossed her arms and bit her lip, though, Gaara could tell that she wanted to. He also knew that had he been anyone else, she would have. But he wasn't anyone else, and his own sister was afraid to anger him because of it. The grin he hadn't known he'd had diminished while his desire to see his best friend increased. Sakura probably cared more for him than any of his family did, even more than his uncle. His pink-haired burr wouldn't shy away from him for any reason.

Gaara's mood returned to its previous sour disposition over his being bound to Temari and her dance lessons when all he wanted was to run to Sakura's side. By the time his friend was just a block away and gaining speed, he couldn't do as his uncle had told him to anymore. Knowing that he would get in trouble and not caring, Gaara turned away from his family and started running towards the only one who made him feel whole. It was because of this that he nearly ran into Kirsche, who turned the corner before Sakura did. For a moment Gaara's attention was drawn to her eyes, which almost appeared to be vibrating.

"Gaara! Temari!" Sakura cried, letting go of Kirsche's hand and hugging the boy in front of her, nearly knocking him over with her enthusiasm. Suddenly she let go, squeaking out an apology. It took the boy a moment to realize she was apologizing to Kirsche, and by then the older pink haired woman sighed, running a hand through her hair. Her eyes no logger appeared to be vibrating, if they ever had been. "Sorry," Sakura said again, this time to him, as she trotted back to Kirsche's side, "Kirsche said we have to go or else we'll—"

"It's fine," breathed out Kirsche as she pushed the girl back towards Gaara, "we won't make it in time anymore. Go have fun."

Gaara jumped as his uncle's hand landed on his shoulder. Yashamaru tightened his hold on his squirming nephew as he asked, "In time for what?" To Gaara's surprise, Sakura turned to Kirsche, as if she too wanted to know.

A strange smile, Gaara would almost call it sly, spread over the woman's face. "A learning opportunity," she said simply, as if that answered everything. Patting Sakura's head, Kirsche added, "but such is life. Things don't always go the way you plan. But just because we've missed one opportunity doesn't mean all is lost. Isn't that right, Sakura?" The child nodded slowly, but her eyes lacked the gleam of understanding. Gaara couldn't blame her; Kirsche spoke in riddles.

Yashamaru nodded, then said, "Very well," Gaara started when his uncle took his hand, "We were on our way to Temari's dance lessons. If you would like, you may join us, though I don't know how fun it would be."

In the end, sitting through Temari's dance lessons wasn't nearly as bad as Gaara had feared it would be. This wasn't to say that it was fun to watch his sister and other girls he didn't know repeat the same movements over and over again—that would have been quite boring. But as it was, he hardly even spared a glance towards them. All his attention was taken up by Sakura, even when all her attention was on Temari and the dance instructor. Later she would inform him and his sister that out of all of the girls there, Temari and her teacher seemed to be the only good ones. Gaara found the information funny, Temari, terrifying.

"How could you say that?" demanded the blond girl as the children followed behind Yashamaru. "That's just…" Temari's arms flailed as she sought the word she was looking for, "cruel! For once in my life I don't want to be good at something! I hate dancing!"

"But," Sakura ventured, twisting a lock of hair around her finger, "you're so good at it," If she had been looking at Temari just then, Sakura would have been silenced by her glare, but right then she was studying her feet and not her friend, and so she continued unafraid, "and you looked beautiful when you did that twirl-thing…" pausing, Sakura's head popped up, but she still missed the glare by turning to look at her other friend instead, "…didn't she, Gaara?"

The boy shrugged, his eyes moving from his sister to land on Sakura's beaming smile. Gaara hadn't been too impressed with his sister's dancing, and with the ugly glare currently on her face, he couldn't think of her as beautiful either. Despite this, when Sakura repeated her question, an even larger smile on her face, he couldn't help but smile too and give her the desired answer, "Yeah, sure." His pink haired burr hugged him in response. Gaara hugged back, but the glare he sent over Sakura's head at Temari, who was still glaring at the red-head's best friend, belied his earlier answer, saying instead without words that she had better quit glaring or else.

Temar's face went stark white, the glare disappearing the instant she read the intent in his eyes. A moment later she was running to Yashamaru's side, grasping his hand like a lifeline, periodically shooting fearful glances behind her at her brother.

If Sakura had noticed the cause of Temari's strange behavior, she would have set things straight. She would have stopped Gaara's glare with gentle chiding and soothed Temari's fears with a joke or a hug. If she had noticed, the three of them would have soon been laughing together like a close-knit family. But she didn't notice. There was a pretty spotted lizard to chase after instead. She almost had it when she was caught instead by Yashamru who was really angry for some reason that had to do with 'new row toxins'. Sakura didn't really understand why she was being yelled at, or why the doctor refused to put her down until they were in front of her house, but once Youko found out, she was sat down for a long talk about not chasing poisonous reptiles while Yashamaru took his niece and nephew back home.

Between the two medical professionals' lectures and being called by Kirsche for lessons before bed, Sakura never noticed the rift forming between her two closest friends.

* * *

For the next few weeks Sakura saw little of Gaara and Kankuro, though Temari usually showed up at the park after school to play for a few hours before dance. When the older girl left, Sakura would head back alone, wishing all the way home that the boys weren't grounded. The first day that she came back early, Sakura was surprised to find Kirsche sitting on the roof looking straight at the sun. But before she could pass on her mommy's warning about going blind, Kirsche had stood up, saying that the sun held no danger for her Hoshi Eyes. Before Sakura knew what happened, Kirsche was standing beside her, ushering her inside. That week Sakura got more practice witch Chakra than she thought possible—she had learned a few of the single handed hand signs (which were really more motions than signs) that Kirsche said would help her focus her Kekkei Genkai once she had awoken it and, after a lot of begging, Temari had even taught her the 12 ninja hand seals.

Every night Sakura went to bed exhausted but pleased with her progress. She was so pleased, in fact, that when she went to school she couldn't stop smiling, even when Rei bullied her more than normal, calling her more names, taking her erasers (some she never did get back), pushing her around and once he even pulled her hair hard enough to make her cry; Sakura suspected that his actions had something to do with having somehow found out that Yashamaru was keeping Gaara by his side at all times; other people had become more openly hostile towards her since then too, but what she couldn't figure out was why Rei found it so much fun to pick on her. The others, at least, just shot her nasty looks or ignored her; Rei just wouldn't leave her alone. She had tried everything to make him stop. She had yelled at him, ignored him, told Nakagawa-sensei, but nothing worked. The only time he had stopped torturing her midway had been the hair incident, and she didn't have a clue why. That was also the day Sakura had been allowed to take her bandaged arm out of the sling, which made her so happy she almost completely forgot about Rei's antics.

After her final day of school for the week, Sakura hurried to the park, hoping to find Temari waiting for her. She wasn't. Sakura sighed, her shoulders dropping as she shuffled to the swing and sat down to wait. Only once before that week had Temari not arrived first, and that time it turned out that the older girl had run into the fan-lady who would be teaching her starting the next month and had lost track of time. Sakura's legs swung uselessly back and forth, the tips of her toes digging into the sand. She was beginning to wonder if Temari was coming at all when a twig cracking made her jump off the swing and turn quickly, a large smile on her face. Temari's name died in her throat when she caught sight of who was behind her.

It was Rei Higa, his sister, Hisako, and another, older girl that seemed familiar, though Sakura couldn't remember from where. She didn't look much older than ten. Perhaps she had seen the older girl at school, though she didn't think so.

Sakura's smile stayed frozen on her face. All three of them were looking at her with different expressions. The older girl looked shocked, maybe even annoyed, Hisako looked happy for a moment, then her smiled dropped as if she had just remembered that she wasn't supposed to like Sakura, and Rei…he looked as if he'd just been handed a new toy. Sakura was afraid she knew exactly who that toy was, and wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, what Sakura wanted most just then was to disappear. Maybe if she had been Gaara she could have made the earth swallow her whole. But then again, Gaara never seemed to be scared of anything. He wouldn't have run away just because three people were giving him strange looks. But Sakura wasn't Gaara and she _did_ want to run away. She wanted to, but even as her instincts yelled at her to flee, her feet stayed frozen in place, her eyes glued on the three whose eyes were likewise glued on her.

"Hey," Like usual, it was Rei who spoke when no one else would, "it's Pinky!" Sakura's face turned the color of the name as she broke eye contact, her hands clenching even as her eyes sought her shoes. The stuck-on smile vanished entirely from her face. A grunt made her look back up. Rei was rubbing his side and glaring at Hisako. "What was that for?" he exclaimed. Sakura didn't catch what his twin whispered, but she didn't miss the momentary blush that crossed his face—or maybe it was a flush of anger, because he started shouting incoherent things back at Hisako immediately after.

The yelling might have gone on for much longer if the older girl hadn't grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and yanked. Rei sputtered and bent over once the girl let go, gasping for breath. When Hisako chided the older girl for being mean, Sakura learned the girl's name was Sora. The name didn't sound familiar, but the face was still setting off bells in her head, and the spike in her heartbeat when Sora looked her way made Sakura fear that they were warning bells.

Sora growled, "Would you brats quit making such a racket, I've got a headache." It wasn't a request. The older girl swung on Rei when he started to argue, "Shut it," she ordered, rubbing her temple as she did so. She then muttered just loud enough for Sakura to hear, "Why am I related to such loudmouths?" Then her eyes landed on Sakura, and she made a weird face, something like a half smirk half grimace. "What are you looking at outsider?"

Suddenly Sakura knew who Sora was, and before she had time to think about it, she blurted out, "You're the bandaged girl—the one with Hayato who broke my…" Sakura trailed off when Sora glared at her. This was the girl who had ganged up on her months ago and had broken her arm for the first time—the one who had apologized later after Sakura had stopped Sand Gaara from killing her. Sakura couldn't help but flinch when the bully took a step forward.

"Phh," snorted Sora, crossing her arms, "still a coward I see." If Sakura could have run just then, she would have. But her legs remained in place, quaking but unmovable. "How a little fraidy-cat like you can stand up to Shukaku I'll never understand." By the time Sakura remembered that Shukaku was Sand Gaara, Sora was speaking again, "Bah, quit shaking. I'm not stupid enough to try hurting you a second time. Our family's had enough run-ins with that thing as is, no need to ask for him to come back a third time to finish one of us off."

"Third time?" Sakura squeaked out. She might even have gotten an answer if just then her ribbon hadn't been torn off her head from behind. Sakura twirled around, her feet finally moving, to find Rei jumping back, a large grin on his face. In his hand was not only the ribbon Temari had given her but a few strands of hair as well. Unlike the last time he had pulled her hair, Sakura didn't cry—she lunged forward, trying to take back the red ribbon.

Rei dodged, shouting triumphantly, "Too slow Pinky!" Sakura tried again, "Wow, Sora was right," with the same results, "without this you really are a mop head!" Sakura tried unsuccessfully to push her bangs out of her eyes, gritting her teeth as she sprung forward again, determined to get Temari's present back. She missed and fell, rolling along the ground a few feet, skinning her knees.

As Sakura sat up, the world spinning, she could hear Sora yelling, "Quit flirting, you numbskull!" Rather than anger, Sakura thought she heard fear in the girl's voice.

Rei shouted back, "I'm not fli—flir—w-whatever that is! I'm playing keep-away! Now butt out you old hag!"

Sakura would have winced when a shoe was thrown by Sora at Rei, if not for the fact that Rei's inattention gave her an opening to get back her ribbon. She had just about grasped it when Rei swung his hand up as high in the air as he could, the ribbon crumpled under his fingers. She had his attention again. He was only a few inches taller than her, but it was enough. Sakura jumped, but failed again as Rei jerked away, laughing. Sakura's momentum kept her going and she almost fell again. But she didn't. At the last moment she regained her balance and shouted as she shot forward again, "Give it back! It was a present!" The race was on.

Rei ran around the slide twice, then passed the swings and ran towards the sandbox with Sakura following close behind. There was a large smile on the boy's face, as if being chased by an irate mop head was the most enjoyable thing in the world to him. Then the ribbon-wielding boy stumbled over the wooden corner of the sandbox and Sakura caught up to him—or more like ran into him —and both tumbled over the side into the sandbox; a heap of flailing arms, legs, and sand.

Sakura could hear Sora and Hisako shouting, but her heart was beating so loudly from running—and Rei's scream from when she tried to get herself off of him was adding to the jangle in her ears, making it impossible to understand what anyone was saying, not to mention her left leg was throbbing where it had hit the corner of the sandbox—she'd probably have a big bruise now, which was just great. She stopped caring about the shouting and her leg the moment Rei, in an attempt to free himself, elbowed her in the stomach while somehow simultaneously kicking up a cloud of sand that sent them both on a coughing spree that didn't end until there were tears in their eyes.

By the time Rei had gotten himself free of Sakura and the sandbox with the ribbon still in his possession, only the sound of Sakura still coughing and sand hung in the air. It was the sudden silence Sakura noticed first, as her eyes had been closed while she huddled in the sandbox, recovering from her annoying coughs. It wasn't until she opened her eyes that she noticed that Rei had fallen down again, that Sora looked like she was about to be sick even though she was running towards Rei, that Hisako had disappeared, and, most importantly, that the sand had quit moving all together, preferring to stay right where it hung. It only took Sakura a moment to guess why.

"Gaara!" exclaimed the pink, mop-haired child as she twisted around to find the glowering red head behind her. Pushing hair out of her eyes, Sakura scuttled up and out of the sandbox, stumbling to a halt before she got near enough to hug him. "Why are you angry?"

For a moment Gaara didn't say anything as he shifted from glaring past her to searching her face, his sand swaying back and forth in the air as he did so. Just when he began an answer, a whisper of 'monster' floated on a gust of wind to their ears. Gaara jerked around, his finger jabbing at Rei as he said through a tight voice and gritted teeth, "You're the monster." As he jabbed his finger again at Rei, then at Sora, his sand following his movements, he said louder, "You, not me." And for once, Gaara really believed it. He wasn't the monster they called him. They were. Then he was shouting, his sand rushing forward and back like waves as he stabbed his finger towards them again and again, "I've never tried to hurt anyone who hasn't hurt me!"

Rei, never one to know when to keep his mouth shut, exclaimed in his defense, "Hey, I didn't hurt you, and neither has my cousin—" then he faltered, "…well, she hasn't as far as I know, anyhow." The sand-haired boy cringed as Gaara took a step forward, then he hissed under his breath, "Don't hurt me."

This time Gaara's pointing finger fell on Sakura, whose eyes had gone large.

"Her," he stated bluntly, "You hurt her." Before either Rei or Sakura could argue, he added heatedly, "You steal her things!" His finger pointed to Sakura's unbound hair. "You make her bleed!" his hand shifted down to her knees and then back up to her face, "You make her cry!" Sakura tried to protest at this point: she was not crying, but no one heard over Gaara's raised voice. "She did nothing to you, but you hurt her anyway! So why shouldn't I hurt you?" His finger once again shot in Rei's direction

As before Sakura's protest was overridden by another voice, this time Sora's. "Because we didn't hurt you," The older girl's voice was quivering as she moved herself between Rei and Gaara, but her stance stayed steady as she looked into angry sea-foam eyes and tried to explain logically, "By what you've said, it would be silly of you to hurt us since we didn't hurt you, only her, and—"

Suddenly the sand was rising to surround Sakura's two bullies who shouted incoherently at him as Gaara reached out his hand and began to close it, saying coldly, "There is no difference." And in his mind, there really wasn't. "When you hurt her, you hurt me." He didn't know when it had happened, but at some point he had quit distinguishing his pink haired burr as something completely separate from himself. "Unlike her, I won't—"

Sakura, tired of being ignored, hobbled over and grabbed Gaara's wrist, forcing it back to his side. "Stop, just stop; all of you!" A collective breath was held and even the sand froze as tears fell from Sakura's angry eyes. "I hate this," Sakura whispered through more tears as her bruised leg gave out and she fell to the ground, only her hands on Gaara's wrists staying where they were. And then Sakura started sobbing as her pained and heated gaze swept back and forth between all three of the children, "Why can't everyone just stop fighting; just stop hurting others? If they did, maybe we all wouldn't hurt so much? It hurts to hurt others! Can't you see, Gaara?" Sakura tugged on Gaara's hand, "If you hurt them, that will hurt me too!" The sand fell back to the ground when the little girl looked up at Shukaku's host with eyes filled with more pain than when he'd found her huddled in the sandbox. He never meant to hurt her any more than he had meant to anger her. He just wanted to protect her…and himself.

Perhaps sensing that she had made progress, Sakura choked back more sobs to add through a forced smile, "Besides, there's no reason to be angry. Sora already said she was sorry for hurting me, and Rei didn't try to hurt me," 'this time', Sakura mentally added before she finished with, "we fell." Sakura's heart pounded in her ears louder and louder the longer she waited for Gaara to relax. His hand under hers fisted instead.

For a moment, the look Gaara gave her made her heart stop. "He took your ribbon." His voice was as hard as his eyes. What was worse, she couldn't deny it. Rei had stolen her ribbon, and Gaara knew how much Temari's presents had come to mean to her. She would never have given away her symbol of her new friends and her new life without a very good reason. Before she even knew what she was saying, an answer popped out of her mouth.

"Keep-away…he said we were playing keep-away." It was true. Sakura knew it was and so she didn't falter and it was _that_ that convinced Gaara to lower his guard. Only later, after Gaara had calmed down, after Rei and Sora had shakily stood up and walked away to supposedly go look for Hisako, after Gaara had fussed over her and the large bruise and even larger splinter stuck in her leg from the sandbox, after Yashamaru came to pick Gaara up without being told about the splinter or the fight, after Kirsche's lessons on how to activate scrolls with Chakra…only after she was safely tucked in bed did Sakura realize something. What she had told Gaara was true; every word of it…but it wasn't _the_ _truth_.

That night Sakura tossed and turned restlessly in bed as she mulled over the question of whether or not she had lied to Gaara. If she had, she would feel like the worst best friend in the world, and if she hadn't…she couldn't figure out what to feel. She still didn't have an answer when she fell asleep…nor did she when a hand gently woke her up. For many minutes, Sakura could only blink tiredly as Kirsche got her out of bed and in a dress. It wasn't until Kirsche left a note on the dinner table and they were walking out the back door that Sakura was awake enough to realize it was still night time.

Before she could even begin to ask question or protest, Sakura found herself hefted into Kirsche's arms. Her stomach was soon left behind as Kirsche jumped as high as a ninja could to land on the neighbor's shadowed roof. By the time her stomach had caught up with them, Kirsche was speaking only loud enough for Sakura to hear her. "It is time—for real, this time. Even in the worst case scenario you will gain your Hoshi Eyes tonight. Nothing will be able to stop that."

Sakura almost asked what would try to stop them, then she remembered the last time Kirsche had swept her away weeks ago—a chance run in with Gaara, Temari, and Yashamaru had made Kirsche decide they had 'missed their opening' to do… well, whatever it was they were going to do. Sakura still wasn't quite clear on what had to be done to awaken her Kekkei Genkai other than opening a scroll—her tired mind tried to remember what else Kirsche had said about it as the pink haired woman continued moving from rooftop to rooftop, taking Sakura with her. Sakura had only just remembered that she was supposed to have been thinking about where to draw blood from for the scroll —something she had completely forgotten about—when Kirsche came to a stop on top of a round building somewhere in the middle of town.

Sakura winced when Kirsche's arm brushed her left leg as she set her down. The woman, for once, didn't seem to notice as her eyes scanned the starry sky as if it were a map. As Kirsche continued looking skyward, Sakura looked down at her left leg, lifting her dress to get a better look at her injury from the sandbox. With the help of the full moon, she could just make out the spreading bruise on the outside of her upper thigh with a darker splotch that, when her fingers brushed over it, turned out to be the splinter at its center. Sakura shuddered. She didn't want to think about removing a splinter bigger than her thumb from her leg—that's why, after all, she hadn't told anyone about it, not even Yashamaru or her aunt Youko who could have healed it—it was too scary of a thought.

When the light of the moon disappeared it made Sakura look up to find that Kirsche was no longer looking at the sky but at her… a scroll in one hand that hadn't been there before. The older woman got down on one knee, unrolling the scroll as she did so. The little girl reached out her free hand and took the offered scroll, her mind racing to think on the subject that Kirsche had warned her to be thinking about a long time ago. Blood…where would it come from? Sakura didn't realize her one hand was still holding up the hem of her dress or that Kirsche was making a move until she yelped in pain, her hand with the scroll flying to her leg. Without asking, or even giving a warning, Kirsche had removed the splinter.

Sakura might have yelled at her, or she might have started wailing in belated pain and fear, but Kirsche was biting her own thumb and pressing it to the side of the scroll that wasn't being pressed to Sakura's leg, and that froze the child's tongue in place. Sakura was just realizing that the vacated splinter-hole in her leg meant she didn't have to think any more about hurting herself to get blood to activate the scroll when Kirsche apologized, then asked, "Do you remember when I told you how to push your Chakra into the scroll to activate it? Good. On the count of three, we will do so together. One…" Sakura's mind scrambled, "two…" she dropped her hem and grasped the scroll with both hands, one hand overlapping Kirsche's, "…three!"

Sakura pushed her Chakra out as quickly as she could, and for a moment she was surprised how easy and perhaps even fun it was to use Chakra—she never dared to before now—and the next moment she felt her Chakra leaving her rapidly, almost without her say-so, as if it were being sucked out greedily by the scroll. The world started to go grey around the corners as Sakura felt her legs wobble. As her vision tunneled more, she felt a hand that must have been Kirsche's steady her at the same moment she heard a voice scream her name—strangely, it didn't sound like Kirsche, it was too high pitched and far away. The next thing Sakura knew the tunnel vision had been replaced by a flash of white and then…

* * *

Kirsche caught the unconscious child as a space of all white passed around them and settle down to wait for the experience to end, not that she had much choice. What might have been five seconds, or perhaps five minutes, went by in all white—and then in a flash a dash of black in the distance came and went—Kirsche scowled, then said more to herself and the white space she was stuck in than to the child on her lap, "This is why I hate using The Scroll of the Circle—there's no controlling the journey—stuck in one place for who knows how long until you decide to spit us out." When another flash of black went by, Kirsche rolled her eyes, then said sarcastically as if there had been someone there who had said something rather than a white void, "Very funny…I wonder what would happen if I broke from the Scroll and finished the rest of our journey myself—" A black line went by again. Kirsche's voice raised an octave "Well, I certainly wouldn't take us near the Void where a little child could easily die!" This last part held more than a little venom in it, but after that the black mark in the distance ceased appearing, as if it had listened to the pink haired woman's scolding and all it left was white, all white. Another few minutes—or were they hours—went by in silence.

By the time the white void faded back into the moon-lit sands of Suna, Kirsche's eye was twitching as she moved Sakura off her lap so she could stand up and look around herself. She found things not exactly as she expected them—for one thing, everything appeared closer to the ground than before. They were no longer on top of a building but rather about a half hour's travel from the city proper—though, she noted, they were technically still within the boundaries of Suna, so she hadn't broken her promise to Sakura's aunt—and from the look of the full moon, night had only just begun. But neither of those were the reason why her eye was still twitching; she had foreseen where they would land, and she knew approximately _when_ they had landed—what was annoying her had more to do with how fate had decided to go dashing the plans she had made before this—though why she hadn't expected something like this, she couldn't say…it's not like she didn't know fate had it out for her.

Kirsche shook her head, sighed, and then smiled ruefully as she looked at the young girl lying on the ground. She didn't need a mirror to tell that the two of them were closer in age now than they had been before—the fact that Kirsche was a few inches closer to the ground was one tell-tale sign—the fact that Sakura had gained those few inches and then some was another. At least their clothes had changed sizes with them. After a few minutes of silent contemplation, the now-shorter-than-before Kirsche wondered briefly if Sakura would remember her warning about the side effects of The Scroll of the Circle, and figured a moment later that she wouldn't.

"Well," Kirsche whispered exasperatedly to the desert wind, "guess I'll have to get used to being about sixteen or seventeen again…and she'll have to learn to be a few years older than she ever has been. Somehow, I think, between the two of us, she'll have things harder; at least I've gone through time enough to know what to expect when I'm spat out into a new environment." The now-teenager chuckled. "She'll be in for a shock when she wakes up…even if suddenly being two or so years older doesn't get to her…time will." After a brief pause and a glance at the moon, she added, "Somehow I doubt Sakura has realized just why the Laws of Time are so important for Hoshi's, especially Time Walker, to know…but she will soon…"

Picking up the younger girl, Kirsche thought with a smile '_…after all, Time Walkers are called just that for a reason… We don't just sit around and do nothing but watch time fly by passively. We play a much more active role than that._'

* * *

Well, that's the long awaited end to 'Part One: Childhood' of Kindred Spirits. I apologize for making everyone wait so long for this chapter, but I'm afraid that free time is not something I have much of at the moment (perhaps the longer than normal chapter can somewhat make up for my long absence). Anyhow, I hope everyone liked the chapter—those who have read the two sister stories to this probably recognize some of what's going on and have an idea of how The Scroll of the Circle will affect Sakura's life in the next part of her story. I don't know how long Part Two will be, it will depend on my reader's opinions, but there are certain things I have planned for Part Two that have to happen before we can move on to Part Three.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to an extra Scroll of the Circle, Flamers, however, will be left in the Void…now, onto the pretty list!

Thanks to: MaroonAngel of Darkness, Reibuki Shihaisha (yes, I can, and if you haven't guessed already, you'll find out in the next chapter where they were headed), Higanbana.4 (I hope you got my PM in answer to your question, and thank you for noticing), Wild Blossom (yes, they're just slow in coming), TranquilSapphire (I don't either), Yautja's Blooded Pet (just keep reading and you will find out), ShinoCoolGaaraAwesome (I'm so glad to hear that, I hope the long wait hasn't put you off), shadow miko, ArtemisMoon (Thank you. It is hard to write from a small child's point of view, since I am no longer a child, but I think that children often know and understand more than adults give them credit for, especially really smart children like Sakura. As to your statement on Kankuro getting a girlfriend...I'll keep it in mind for Part Three. I'm sure I can find someone for him, even if it does have to be an OC...there aren't that many female's their age in Naruto after all. Thanks for the long review, and being willing to wait for life to give me a break), moonlitwater, Uncertain Shifter, & leafstone for reviewing!


	22. Strange (Part 2)

8

Disclaimer: If I owned, don't you think the Hoshi Eyes would have made their way into the Manga by now?

**Part 2: The Past**

Chapter 22: Strange

The first thing Sakura noticed when she started to awaken was that she felt like she how she had felt when she was getting over the stomach flu about a year ago: Queasy, tired, hot and weighed down by covers as heavy as a bolder. The only thing was, she didn't remember going to bed sick. As the tired girl's eyes cracked open, she realized that she was also hungry, but the thought of food just made her stomach turn in knots. The knots got worse when she didn't recognize the strange, empty room she was in. Why was she here? Where was here? Tears started to sting her eyes as Sakura clumsily pushed back the covers and practically dropped from the unfamiliar bed to the floor. A strangled wail fell from her as the child hit the floor, eyes clouding with tears, "Momm'—Dadd'—Gaa—"

The sound of a door opening stopped her from shouting out another name as a blur of pink—Kirsche, Sakura recognized through her tears with relief —rushed to her side, crooning softly in a familiar whisper, "Shh, it's ok. I'm right here." Sakura clung to Kirsche, squeezing her tear-filled eyes closed, as if doing so would make her know where she was. At least she wasn't alone anymore.

Before Sakura had time to calm down enough to remember how she might have come to be where she was, another voice spoke from the doorway, making Sakura jump. "I'm glad she's awake, I was beginning to worry." The woman's voice was warm, but Sakura didn't recognize it or her. Instead of looking up to the stranger, Sakura buried her head in Kirsche's chest, wishing she could disappear. She hadn't felt this afraid of strangers in a long time…then again, she hadn't met any real strangers lately either. The woman was speaking again. "Are you sure I shouldn't call a doctor? Your sister still doesn't look too good."

It took Sakura a moment to realize just who Kirsche's sister was supposed to be, and by then, Kirsche was answering the lady. "No, it's not needed. If we stay here for very long, you'll see that this is a fairly common state for her. All she needs is rest. Thank you for the offer, though, and thank you for allowing us to stay here."

The woman chuckled. "Think nothing of it. A Hoshi saved me and my brother's lives when we were little…giving his niece's a place to stay is the least I can do. Now, get that poor thing back in bed, and I'll go see about fixing up some soup for her." As the door closed, Sakura could still hear the woman murmuring, "poor thing…having such a weak constitution…" as her voice faded down what must be a hallway. Questions started swirling through Sakura's head, like 'where were they', 'who was that lady', and 'why did she think they were sisters', but she held off on asking them until Kirsche had settled her back on the bed and the queasy feeling in her gut had settled down enough for her to open her eyes. And then, all other questions slipped from her mind when she caught sight of Kirsche.

"What happened to you?" Sakura exclaimed as she realized that Kirsche didn't look like she had before. It was still clearly Kirsche, the same hair, the same ever-constant smile, the same facial features…only, she looked…well…younger. No wonder the lady had mistaken them for sisters. The more Sakura looked, the more she felt like she was looking at a teenaged version of herself. If Sakura hadn't been so shocked, she might have smiled when she remembered she had thought nearly the same thing the first time they had met. As with back then, only Kirsche's blue eyes with their pin-prick pupils stood out as vastly different from Sakura's leaf green gaze.

Kirsche smiled, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "What does it look like?"

Sakura pointed jerkily at the older girl, feeling awkward in her own body. She wondered briefly how long she had been asleep to feel that way before she answered, "Y-you…You aged backwards!" Kirsche laughed at her word choice. "B-but how? Why?" Kirsche merely raised one eyebrow in a silent question, just as she always did during lessons when she was prompting Sakura to search for the answer herself. This, strangely enough, made Sakura calm down as she settled into her lesson-time's familiar routine of deep thought, ignoring the way her stomach still felt slightly upset. As the girl calmed down and let her now alert mind wander in search of answers, a few things floated to the top of her mind, the most important of which being her memory of the previous night.

For a brief moment, Sakura reveled in her memory of using her Chakra for the first time. It had been so easy, so exhilarating to send out her Chakra to The Scroll of the Circle…at least until things started going dark…she hadn't liked that part, it didn't feel good. After pondering this for a bit, Sakura came to the conclusion that, like she now remembered Kirsche had told her back at the hospital weeks ago, she hadn't had enough Chakra to fuel the Scroll on her own…and she remembered reading somewhere that overuse of Chakra could make the user weak or even sick. That must be why she felt so weird; her first time using Chakra had ended with her nearly sucked dry.

Remembering now that The Scroll of the Circle was likely related to what had happened to Kirsche, Sakura tried to remember what else the older Hoshi had said that night at the hospital. There had been something about choosing the right path for her to awaken her Hoshi Eyes on…something about the timing and the place of opening the Scroll being important…she still wasn't completely sure what that had been about, but seeing how Kirsche had twice now picked her up without warning in a rush to get somewhere in time, Sakura could eventually determine that twice now the right place and time had come about for her to find this 'right path'…

'_Now that I think about it,_' Sakura thought to herself, '_that means that I used The Scroll of the Circle…so does that mean I'm now one of…oh, what was it again…See…owsda…something…I don't remember…but my eyes? Do I have Hoshi Eyes?_' With that though, Sakura's head popped up and she searched the room, finding a vanity cattycorner to the bed she was occupying. Slipping off the bed, Sakura stumbled uncoordinatedly towards the vanity, her hands reaching out to catch the wood as she tripped over her own feet. When she looked at her reflection, her eyes opened so wide Sakura feared they might pop out. Her eyes didn't look like Kirsche's…they didn't really look any different at all. It was the rest of her that looked different. As if she were seven or eight, rather than five.

Sakura swiveled in place, having to catch herself on the vanity again as she exclaimed, "I've aged forward!" Kirsche's hand was covering her mouth, but her eyes were sparkling; there was no question as to whether she was smiling, she was always smiling. "It's not funny, why—?" Sakura cut herself off as another memory from the hospital came to her. The girl knew that her mouth was now shaped like an O, but she didn't care. "Is this what you meant by side effects?" Sakura remembered a bit more, and then added, "You said that the side effects would go away after…something about a trial, right? When the trial ended…and something about a mark…" Sakura's eyes opened even larger and she suddenly exclaimed, "…my leg!"

Sakura released the vanity, scrambling to pull up her dress and looked at her leg. She still had a bruise the size of her hand, and at its center there was an almost circular scab where the splinter had once been, but that wasn't all. Wrapping around her leg, from the scab down to about a hand's worth before her knee were little coma-like marks…just like the scars Kirsche had shown her…only these marks were bright red, not scar-tissue colored.

She shouldn't have let go of the vanity. Without its help, between the pain of her deeply bruised leg and her current general clumsiness Sakura lost her ability to stay upright. She didn't fall far though, for Kirsche, who had somehow moved across the room without her noticing, caught her and moved her back to the bed before she even knew what was happening. "Congratulations," she was saying as she pulled the covers back over the younger girl's lap, "I knew if you thought about it you'd be able to figure it out without my help." Patting the girl's head, she added, "But like I told Megumi just now, you do need to rest if you want to feel better. You need your depleted Chakra stores to return…not to mention that the less you are on that leg the better. You bruised your bone and since that splinter hadn't been dealt with immediately, the wound became infected. You might have a fever for a day or two as well, but that's probably just as well, since it's a good excuse for you to be uncoordinated. It will give you time to get accustomed to your new height without drawing unnecessary attention."

Sakura shifted nervously, not really paying attention, her mind still trying to figure things out. Looking at Kirsche, she asked for the second time, "Why? Why have we aged?" When Kirsche raised an eyebrow, she added, "I know it's a side effect, but why? Why would using a scroll change our ages?" As far as Sakura knew, she had never heard of a scroll doing anything but what it was supposed to do.

Kirsche smiled gently, patting Sakura on the head as she answered in a low voice, her eyes not on Sakura, but rather on the door, "I'll explain more later…but I suppose you could say that when you mess with time, time messes with you."

Sakura opened her mouth, a question on her tongue, when the sound of running and the door being thrown open silenced her. A girl, maybe eleven or twelve, with long hair—the color reminded Sakura of her daddy's and Auntie Youko's hair—stood in the doorway, her grey eyes bouncing as she moved out of the way of an older woman with the same hair, only cut short, who was carrying a tray with a bowl on it. Before Sakura could see if the woman had the same eyes as the girl she found herself automatically hiding behind Kirsche, her shyness taking over as the woman entered the room.

"I brought some miso soup." It was the same warm voice as before. Kirsche had called her Megumi, Sakura remembered. For some reason that name sounded familiar, and not just because of the Hoshi's earlier statement. She had just decided that she must have heard one of the adults talking about her before when Megumi set down the tray with an audible click and added, "There's an apple here too, if you feel up to it."

Sakura didn't dare move from her hiding place behind Kirsche—she could practically feel their eyes on her, and she just knew if she met those eyes, she would freeze in place—but she did get up enough courage to squeak out a thanks. The woman chuckled. "You are very welcome, dear. Now, I have other guests I have to tend to, but if you need anything, just let me or one of the twins know." There came the sound of movement and the door opening, then the woman added, "Oh, and sweetie, would you show our guests where the extra bedding is? If that little one's fever gets too bad, the sheets might need changing; and it gets cold at night."

"Yes, mom," came the immediate reply. The door closed and the next thing Sakura knew a pile of blankets landed next to her. Sakura jumped, not so much because the blankets nearly hit her, but because there was now a face only a foot away from her own, hovering over said blankets. "Hey there," greeted the mahogany head cheerfully, "once you feel better we should go outside and play!" Sakura stared, her eyes widening as the preteen introduced herself. "I'm Youko, what's your name?" A hand was thrust in her face, obviously waiting to be grasped, but Sakura couldn't do it. She was frozen.

For the briefest moment, Sakura wondered if her aunt had been aged backwards by the scroll as well, but she knew that was impossible, her aunt hadn't been anywhere near them when they had activated The Scroll of the Circle. The next moment Kirsche's voice repeated in her mind, '_…when you mess with time, time messes with you…when you mess with time…_' but how could someone mess with time? Wasn't Kirsche always going on about the laws of time, testing her time and time again to make sure she knew them? Time was a continuous circle. You couldn't change the past even if you could direct the future. You could affect the future because it hadn't happened yet, but the past was past. There was nothing you could do to it.

And yet here she was, a young Youko's hand stuck in her face.

Her thoughts and the room were spinning.

"Sakura," answered Kirsche in her place, "Her name is Sakura, and I am called Kirsche." Sakura felt Kirsche vacate the space beside her and felt exposed. Her hiding place had abandoned her, but Sakura quit caring the moment Kirsche offered her hand to Youko, making the hand in her face move away to take it. "She's shy, but I know you two will get along once she warms up to you."

Youko laughed out, "I hope so!" at about the same time Sakura's stomach decided to remind everyone in the room that the miso soup was still sitting untouched…and that _that_ was unacceptable. Youko laughed again. "I suppose I better let you eat, Sakura. My mom probably needs me downstairs right now anyhow, seeing as my baby brother is off with my uncle for lessons." Like her mother before her, she was halfway out the door, only with a skip in her step, before she added, "I'll be back later to clean up. See you!" With that, the door closed as feet scampered away from them. Only when the sound was gone, did Kirsche speak.

"How do you feel, Sakura?" Kirsche asked as she passed the miso soup to her, "Do you think you can eat without getting sick?" Sakura nodded numbly, not really hearing. The bowl was half empty before she realized what she was doing.

"Kirsche," The little girl's voice wavered as she stared down at her reflection in the soup. Her reflection rippled as her hands started shaking. "What's going on? I'm scared." Tears welling, she couldn't hold back a sniffle. "I want my mommy."

The bowl was gently removed from her hands and set down on the vanity as Kirsche sat beside her on the bed. Kirsche wrapped her in a warm hug before she answered, "I know, and I am sorry. I've done what I can…but—" Kirsche's voice caught in her throat, making Sakura glance up at her, "awakening is never easy." Kirsche's serine smile didn't fit her voice at all. "The right path rarely is." Looking past the smile, Sakura realized Kirsche was crying; not on the outside—her eyes were dry—but on the inside. "Sometimes losing the ones you love is the only way…" Kirsche's eyes closed, and when they opened again, the Hoshi's eyes were as serine as her smile. "But you don't need to worry about that. You'll see Haruka again in time."

For some reason, Sakura felt like the subject had been changed, but when Kirsche spoke again, it was to answer her earlier question. "As to what is going on…I'm sure you would have liked more of a warning before you were whisked off, but to do so was too dangerous." Sakura didn't get a chance to question the Hoshi before Kirsche was answering, "Some people can be trusted to know that Hoshi's can sometimes see possible futures, but at this point in your life, there was not a single person who could stand to know the full truth. The fact that Time Walkers don't just sit around and See time, but can traverse it as well…It's something most Hoshi want to stay forgotten."

Sakura raised her hand shakily, then asked when Kirsche paused, "What does traverse mean?" When Kirsche didn't answer immediately, she added with a tremor in her voice, "What does it mean to traverse time?" Thanks to Youko, she had a bad feeling she knew.

"Well," Kirsche answered, looking at her hands, "in this particular case, it means we are in the past now, though I can't say exactly when. I do believe I mentioned the possibility to you once before, that Time Walkers can Walk in the past."

Sakura, stuck on the earlier statement, was shocked for all the wrong reasons. "Wh-why not?" The question was out before the little girl even knew she had opened her mouth. '_Why doesn't she know where she has taken us?_' Sakura wondered fretfully when silence followed her question, '_Kirsche always knows everything, so how can she not have an answer?_' The thought that her mentor could be just as lost as she was, was terrifying; more so than being in the past, a concept she couldn't really grasp. A hand landed on Sakura's quivering shoulder, interrupting her next alarmed thought.

Kirsche was smiling gently, as if a smile could sooth away Sakura's fears and confusion. It didn't. "Sakura," Kirsche began, her pinprick eyes holding the child's gaze, "Even I can only do so much…know so much—"

"But," Sakura interrupted desperately, "I thought you said you'd make sure I went on the right path! Wasn't that why you had to open the scroll at the right time, at the right place?" Sakura could feel more tears coming. "You have to know! You just have to!"

Kirsche's smile didn't falter at Sakura's outburst, though her hand did move from the child's shoulder to wipe a stray tear away before wrapping the girl in a one-armed hug. "Sakura, I might not know at what point in time we are exactly, but that's because the exact details were not important when I was searching for a good opportunity for you to use The Scroll of the Circle. I was most worried about us remaining in Suna…and avoiding certain thing…like war—believe me, it's never good to Walk right into the middle of a war, especially if you know nothing about it—I _can_ tell you that, from what I've gathered in the time since we have arrived, we are about ten to thirteen years before you were born. But if I had tried to land us in an even more specific timeline than what I was already doing…well, it would have cost more than would be wise to pay."

The fact that she was currently living before she had even been born was too much for Sakura to wrap her mind around, so, trying to distract herself, she asked instead, "How could it cost you more if we never paid any money to begin with?" Sakura could feel Kirsche's silent chuckle where their sides touched, though she didn't see what was funny about her question. She was about to ask when Kirsche answered, her voice strangely serious.

"Everything comes at a price, Sakura, _everything_, even things that don't cost money. Every ounce of Chakra in your body, every breath you take, every relationship you make, every item that comes to your hands…they all come at a price. Sometimes it might not seem like it, sometimes you are not even the one who has to pay the price…but someone, somewhere, does. There is no such thing as 'free'. Everything has a price, and you must especially remember this when you are dealing with time, Sakura, because the more you ask of time, the more it asks of you. You don't want to be in debt to time."

Kirsche's smile shifted as she patted the girl's head. "But enough about that, I can see I've given you more than enough to think about already. Here," the soup bowl returned to Sakura's hands, "If you don't at least finish the soup, Youko will be very unhappy. She is the one who made it."

Sakura ate in silence, her mind churning, trying to shift through everything that had just been thrown upon her. This whole being in a different time thing was overly complicated, and if she hadn't just met her aunt, Sakura wasn't sure she would have believed Kirsche. But it _was_ true. Crazy, but true. She was living in a time when Auntie Youko was just a kid—her own parents would still be kids too—and she didn't exist, nor would she for at least ten years—and yet, here she was existing before she existed. '_All this because of one silly scroll,_' Sakura thought as she stared down at her near-empty bowl, '_Why? What good is it to go back to the past when you can't change anything?_' Not that Sakura had anything that she wanted to change anyhow. '_Why couldn't the scroll just give me eyes like Kirsche's without all this?_'

Sakura's eyes widened, her spoon dropping into the bowl as a terrifying thought struck her. The whole point of using The Scroll of the Circle was to awaken her Kekkei Genkai, and yet… "Kirsche," Sakura gasped, "I don't have Hoshi eyes! What did I do wrong?" The worst thing Sakura could think of was that not only had she been torn from her friends and family, but that she had been torn from them for no reason—that she had failed whatever trial Kirsche had warned her about. "My eyes are still green!"

Sakura's panic ebbed when Kirsche answered matter-of-factly over the apple she was skinning, "Of course they are; you haven't learned how to activate your Hoshi Eyes yet. That will actually be our first lesson after you take a nap."

"Nap?" Sakura asked incredulously, in true five-year-old fashion. Kirsche didn't bother answering.

"I will tell you right now," the older pink haired girl continued seriously, "It will be hard on you, but for the next few days, until you learn to not only activate your Eyes but keep them activated for hours at a time, you will be stuck in this room and—"

"But why?" Sakura interrupted again. This time Kirsche did answer.

"Because you cannot allow the adults around here to see that you have green eyes. You should be fine if Megumi or her brother finds out since they are indebted to the Hoshi, but at this point in time there are still too many people from Suna who relate the Hoshi back to Konoha even though they left Konoha after the Second Shinobi War—If adults notice that you have green eyes, they will likely realize that means that one of your parents, and thus you, are a Konoha citizen."

Sakura nodded, then asked, "So what?" Although the child could understand what Kirsche was saying, she couldn't see why it mattered?

Kirsche rubbed her head, trying to find a way to explain politics and how hatred and mistrust could last for generations after a war to a child who had never experienced one. Eventually she said, "Look, Sakura, you know what it was like when you first moved to Suna from Konoha, you know how people like Akai treated you, how they judged you by where you came from and who they thought your parents were. Well, the same thing would happen now if an adult found out about your father being a Konoha nin—only worse, because the war that caused those feelings, the Third Shinobi War, hasn't occurred yet, and those with the deepest hatred are still alive."

Kirsche shook her head silently as she segmented the apple, her smile small, as if she was doing it more out of reflex than emotion. A moment later the teen added, "The Hoshi have been separated from the shinobi world for long enough that they are considered neutral by most countries, but you having green rather than blue eyes would be all it would take to remind some that the Hoshi haven't always been that way." Sighing, Kirsche removed the forgotten bowl from Sakura's lap. "And if you thought that the children and Akai were bad—well, children can be cruel, and Akai was a ninja, but he never did become a Chunin, he didn't have the fighting skills for it—but many of Suna's older generation would take Akai's place without hesitation."

Sakura swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat wouldn't budge. She didn't need Kirsche to tell her what would happen if an even better ninja tried to do what Akai had. Her hand went to her throat, where she could all but feel the ghost of Akai's kunai resting. If Gaara hadn't saved her that day, she would be—well, she refused to think about that. But not even her bestest friend in the entire world could save her from another Akai now. He didn't exist yet.

The lump in Sakura's throat got bigger, and soon tears were pouring out of her eyes. She already missed her best friend. The tears kept coming even when Kirsche offered her a plate of skinless apple slices. All she could think of was Gaara. '_What will he think when he comes looking for me at the park after school and I'm not there? Will he hate me?_ _No, but he'll be hurt._' The plate emptied of apple slices, but the tears still came. '_He'll be hurt, and it's all my fault!_'

Neither the tears nor the worried thoughts stopped until Sakura fell asleep, hunched upright over her empty plate.

* * *

A more serious chapter, I know, but not only is it full of explanatory information, but also, I doubt any five-year-old (even if she now appears a few years older) would wake up in a strange place, separated from her friends and family, without crying and asking a ton of questions.

I had finished this chapter a while ago, but I decided to hold off on posting it until I got more reviews. I think I'll be doing the same with the next chapter (which I have begun, though not finished). I'm still busy and I still can't give any exact date for when the next chapter comes out, but I _can_ tell you that the more reviews I get, the more I'll feel it's important to push aside my life for a moment to write for fun.

Reviews and constructive criticism put you on my friends list, any flames, on the other hand, will be smothered with the trashcan! Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: MaroonAngel of Darkness (I think that I have to agree...Gaara isn't going to like this, though perhaps not for the reasons you were thinking), general zargon (well, the answer to how this will affect Gaara won't be answered until Sakura returns to her own time, but at least you might understand what is going on a bit more though. It's sad you don't like Kirsche, but it is understandable), BlossomSakuraCherry, darkstar2010, Sariko-chan723 (thanks, I'm glad you understand), white snowball (that is a good question. The answer is that I don't know exactly when the two will meet, but Sakura will likely meet him in the past first, then meet him again once she returns to her time. And yes, he likely does know about her, she just hasn't met him yet), Some. stranger (Sakura's not a teen, just Kirsche. Sakura is approximately seven. As to meeting people from Konoha, that will likely wait until the Chunin Exams - assuming people want me to continue this fic that far - though, in a way, Itachi has been met already), & Blood-Drop for reviewing!


	23. Of Nicknames and Success

Disclaimer: The Owning-fairy never visited me, so sadly…

Chapter 23: Of Nicknames and Success

Sakura stared listlessly out the window near her bed, watching as people scurried about their business in the mid-day sun. From her position two floors up, she couldn't recognize faces or near-by signs, but even if she had been right next to them, Sakura new she would be just as lost. Even though she knew she was in Suna, it wasn't the Suna she had grown to know and love. It was foreign to her, filled with buildings and roads she didn't recognize—or at least, the buildings and roads outside her window were unknown…and they were all of this New Suna that she had gotten to see yet. It wasn't just because Kirsche wouldn't let her leave the room until she was better at using her Eyes, it was because the training left Sakura without the energy to stand, let alone explore this New Suna.

It wasn't just Suna, the people were new too—even the few Sakura already knew. The little girl had to continuously remind herself that Auntie Youko was now just Youko, and that her daddy was now just Shin, and that even if she had felt up to going to the park, it would be pointless, since neither Gaara nor his siblings would be there. In some ways, that was the hardest thing for Sakura to accept: she had made friends for the first time in her life, and now they didn't exist. The only good news was that the bullies didn't exist either, but Sakura just knew that that would change the moment she left the inn where she and Kirsche were staying—as she remembered once telling her mommy, 'there were Hayato's everywhere'.

That thought almost made Sakura glad she was unable to leave the safety of her room. At least here the worst she had to worry about was overusing her chakra and trying to memorize everything Kirsche was trying to teach her—which now not only included things that Hoshi's could and could not do but even included an entirely new language that Sakura was supposed to learn to read and write—all this on top of trying to learn how to move her now-taller body without tripping with every step she took. This was, of course, assuming she had the energy to walk. Yesterday she hadn't. Today, she planned to.

Tearing her eyes from the window, Sakura forced herself to drop her legs over the edge of the bed. "If I don't do it now," she whispered aloud to herself, "then Kirsche will come back and I'll have lessons, and then I'll be too tired to try." Her feet touched the ground quicker than she expected, making Sakura grit her teeth at her own surprise. She had a lot to get used to. Starting Slowly, Sakura walked around the room, tripping often, even with arms held out for balance. As she made circuits around the room, Sakura realized that she wasn't really learning so much how to walk again—walking was the same motion no matter what size you were—it was that she was learning how _not_ to walk like she was wearing the geta* her mommy wore during festivals.

She had made it halfway around the room without tripping once when the door burst open, startling her enough to throw off the sense of balance Sakura had gained for herself. Sakura ended up on the floor before she even could even see Youko enter the room, though she knew that was who it had to be. No one else threw doors open like Youko did. Perhaps that was why, when she accepted a hand up and saw a preteen with short sandy-hair instead, she was saved from having a reunion with the floor only by the stranger's hand. Or, perhaps it was really because she had over-compensated her strides again. Sakura preferred to think in was the former.

Green eyes blinked up at the new face in surprise, torn between the desire to sink into the floor from shyness and the desire to stand up. Standing up won, partially because the floor refused to let her morph into it and partially because the hand in her own was already pulling her back fully upright. Strangely familiar indigo eyes returned Sakura's gaze worriedly.

"Are you all right?!" Sakura jumped, but didn't lose her balance this time, when Youko seemingly popped out of nowhere to question her. "I doubt you should be out of bed!" Youko continued, bounding up to Sakura's side, placing a cool hand on her forehead. "Definitely not," she then exclaimed as the cool hand was quickly removed. Turning slightly, Youko said to her fellow preteen, "Come on, Karu-Karu, let's get her back in bed."

At the sound of the nickname, the blond rolled his…her…Sakura wasn't sure, but eyes _were_ rolled—though the stranger nodded moments later in response to Youko's statement—and together they directed the protesting Sakura back to where she came from.

"I-I'm fine!" Sakura exclaimed as covers were forced upon her by Youko.

Youko snickered dismissively, but it was the stranger that spoke, indigo eyes serious, but not unkind. "It doesn't take a medic" she—Sakura decided from the blonds voice—stated, "to spot a fever when the person in question can barely keep themselves standing." Sakura opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. She doubted they would believe her even if she told them the real reason why she had lost her balance. The fact that Kirsche had warned her about keeping her time-traveling a secret was another good reason she couldn't tell the truth. At the same time, though, she didn't want these two to misunderstand and think that she was sick or had a weak constitution—whatever that meant—like Youko's mom, Megumi, did. Sakura's mouth opened again just as Youko's face darted right in front of hers, startling the child enough for the argument to die in her throat.

Youko looked serious as she glowered at the pink haired child from way too close to Sakura's face for comfort. "No arguing." Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when the blond haired girl pulled Youko out of her personal space, chiding Youko as she did so. Youko didn't even seem to notice the interference as she continued, "You can't stay standing, your face is flushed, and your skin feels like you were left out in the sun too long. You are not ok. You have a fever. Now stay there and get better." Sakura stared at her future-aunt, her head tilting to one side. She didn't feel as if she had a fever.

Silence overtook the room as Youko continued to stare pointedly at Sakura, who continued to stare blankly back. It wasn't until the blond cleared her throat that both girls looked away from each other. The blond was smiling as she spoke in a clear voice, "Now that we are past that whole fiasco, I do believe you brought me here, Youko, to meet your new friend." Indigo eyes landed fully on Sakura as a hand was stretched out. "Before Youko confuses you any, let me introduce _myself_. My name is Karura—not Karu-Karu, not Karu-Chi, not anything else she tells you, _Karura_." If not for the large smile, Sakura might have mistaken Karura's emphasis for anger—as it was, it took Youko playfully punching her friend's arm and Karura's smile not disappearing for her to be sure that the two were on good terms with each other.

Taking the offered hand tentatively, the pink haired child murmured shyly, finding it hard to look directly into those indigo eyes, "Sa—Sa…kura"

"Oh!" Sakura jerked at the sound, her hand quickly retracting to her core as Youko bounced up and down on her heels. Youko squealed again, "Oh! I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner!"

Karura didn't seem fazed at all as she sighed, "Do we really want know?"

Youko clapped her hands gleefully and answered, "Of course you do!" Then, motioning her hands first towards Karura and then towards Sakura, and then back to Karura, she explained, "Karu, meet Kura, Kura, meet Karu!"

The blond girl raised one hand to her temples, her head shaking from side to side. It took Sakura a moment longer than Karura before she realized that she had just been given a nickname similar to Karura's, and by then Karura was speaking up in her defense. "Youko! Seriously? Don't you think you should ask before giving people whatever name you see fit?" Not waiting for an answer, the annoyed blond turned to Sakura and stated, "And _you_, if you don't want to be called Kura for the duration of your visit you better speak up now, or else this _thing_," she jabbed a finger in her friend's direction, "will make sure that everyone calls you that!" When Sakura just looked up at her with wide eyes, the blond added, "If you aren't careful, no one will remember your real name…" Karura trailed off when she noticed the sparkle in Sakura's eyes. "…and you are not listening to me…"

Sakura shook her head, mumbling, "No, I am," then she spoke louder when Karura 'hmn'ed in question, forcing herself to look up to face the two older girls, "I am listening, it's just…I've never had a nickname before. Even my bestest friend in the whole world calls me Sakura." The words were out before Sakura even realized that she had been talking about Gaara—someone whom she was probably not supposed to be mentioning in this time—but the only reaction this got out of the two was shock for Youko and a reminder from Karura that 'bestest' was incorrect grammar. Neither asked any more about her best friend, though Youko did lean in close to Sakura's face to ask incredulously if she really had never previously had a nickname; before Sakura could nod in answer or voice her mental alarm at having her personal space invaded, Karura pulled the mahogany haired girl away from the bed, muttering something about room to breathe as she did so.

"Come on, Youko," Karura stated with a small smile at her friend's antics, "we've made our introductions, now don't you think we should let her get some sleep? Or have you already forgotten you own lecture about the sick needing to rest? Not to mention Shin's probably already waiting for us at the workshop—or did you forget that too?"

"No, mother," Youko answered sarcastically, "I haven't forgotten." Then a large grin split Youko's face as she hugged Karura and then patted Sakura on the head, "Guess we have to go—my baby brother has something he wants to show us, but I'll check in on you later." Twirling around she half led, half dragged Karura to the door, banged it open, hurried her friend through the opening, then turned back to wave and added, "Remember to get some more sleep. See you, Kura!" The door slammed shut before Sakura could voice her own goodbye.

Sakura's half-raised hand returned to her lap as a smile grew on her face, Youko's voice still ringing in her ears. The little girl didn't know why, but the thought that she now had a nickname—even one as uncreative as Kura—was overwhelming her with happiness. She had been called by many names not her own throughout her short life—billboard brow, forehead, pinky, mop head—but never had a friend called her by another name that made her feel welcomed and wanted. It was a nice feeling.

Sakura turned to the window to watch Youko and Karura exit the inn as they ran hand in hand down the road. Sakura repeated the nickname to herself as the two disappeared from her window's limited view, her smile widening as she rubbed her suddenly tiered eyes and mumbled to the view, "A new name for a new Suna." Somehow, it just seemed to fit.

* * *

"Do you think you can activate your Eyes without my help this time?" Kirsche asked Sakura that evening as the two sat near the open window. Sakura nodded exuberantly despite how weary she felt. Kirsche had been showing her how to activate her Eyes for the past two hours, guiding her with Chakra as well as helpful hints when she needed them. Kirsche smiled gently before she said, "Try to recall what you've already experienced, and remember, if you need help getting to that state, look at the moon. Natures Light is important for Hoshi's." Sakura nodded once more, though this time with less enthusiasm. Kirsche had explained about Natures Light—which, as the name suggested, was any natural light source like the sun, moon or firelight—and how for some reason the Hoshi depended upon it…but no matter how many times Kirsche explained, Sakura just could not understand why it mattered. After the fifth time Kirsche's answer hadn't helped clear things up for her, Sakura had decided to quit asking.

"Okay," Sakura exclaimed, interrupting Kirsche, who looked like she was about to explain Natures Light for the umpteenth time, "I'm going to try now." Closing her eyes, Sakura summoned up the feelings that she had felt when Kirsche had helped her earlier with her Hoshi Eyes. It was a hard to describe feeling, one that was only halfway physical. It was easy to remember what it felt like to move Chakra to her eyes and even easier to do—Kirsche said she had better Chakra control than some ninja ever would—the problem was that Chakra alone wasn't enough to activate her Eyes, it required something more.

Thinking hard, Sakura recalled the warmth that surrounded her the few times she had previously activated her eyes. It wasn't the sun-on-your-skin type of warmth, nor was it the I'm-so-embarrassed warmth. If she had to describe it, it would be more like the feeling Sakura just knew she would have if she suddenly found out that Gaara had traveled to the past as well—that she could hug him and play with him and argue with him—it was that kind of warmth—the kind of warmth that fills up a place in your heart.

Sakura opened her eyes hopefully, but to no avail, her eyes in the vanity mirror stared back, still green. The pink haired child tried not to let that deter her as she pumped more Chakra to her eyes, trying once again to recapture that 'warm' feeling of using her Kekkei Genkai. Sakura stared at her reflection, willing it to change—she knew her eyes would turn blue like Kirsche's since Kirsche had said so—but she had yet to see it happen herself; the few times Kirsche had helped her activate her Eyes it had only lasted a few seconds, ending the moment Kirsche had removed her Chakra, with no time left over to seek her reflection. This time she planned to never remove her eyes from the mirror until she saw the change for herself—it was the proof she needed that it had been worth it to leave her friends and family to come to this time.

Sakura stared holes into her reflection, her hands fisting and her eyebrows furrowing as she split her concentration between her Chakra and the fleeting memory of warmth she knew should accompany the use of her Hoshi Eyes. The minutes ticked by without anything to show for it but lower Chakra stores. Sakura bit her lip, and then jerked when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of movement. A quick glance beyond her own reflection proved that it was just Kirsche who was now looking out the window.

Then, just as Sakura began return her eyes to her own reflection, Kirsche moved one step to the left, inadvertently catching the child's eyes again as the full moon gleamed behind the older girl, illuminating her like a spotlight. The full moon broke Sakura's mental concentration as it pierced her eyes, reminding her of the night when she was in the hospital and Gaara had come to visit her only to yell at her and run away when she asked him to apologize to Akai and Kankuro. A cold breeze blew through the window, making Sakura shiver as the sad memory of Gaara's hurt face replaced the moon in her mind's eyes. This picture was quickly followed by her memory of finding Gaara and Kankuro fighting the following day:

_Slipping away from the adults, Sakura ran to the top of the hill, her heart pounding at the sight that lay just beyond the hill. It was Gaara and Kankuro, rolling on the ground, hitting, kicking, and biting while sand whipped through the air. Sakura didn't stop to think, to wonder why the two boys were fighting, she dashed down the hill, gaining momentum as she ran. The air that sped by her head held muffled shouts of angry words like 'I hate you', 'I don't want your stupid apology' and 'I don't want to be your brother'—_

A thought hit Sakura as the brother's fight replayed in her mind, as clear as if she were there again._ 'I don't want your stupid apology'_. She hadn't realized it at the time, but that had been Kankuro, which had to mean— Sakura smile gently to no one in particular as the image vaporized and warmth wrapped around her. Gaara must have gone to say sorry to Kankuro. He had yelled at her for asking him apologize that previous day, but he had done so anyway. Sakura had no doubt his apology was entirely because she had asked it of him, but still…the thought that Gaara cared enough about her to do as she asked, even when he had made it clear he didn't want to…it made her so grateful that he was her first and bestest friend ever.

The back of Kirsche's head moved again, cutting the moonlight off once more and reminding Sakura of what she was supposed to be attempting to do in the process. Shifting her eyes back to her own reflection on the mirror, Sakura's thoughts turned to her Chakra stores, which were getting low, only to freeze as the eyes that met her own were not hers, but Kirsches. The only thing was, a glance behind her proved that Kirsche was still gazing out the window and yet as she stared behind her at the back of Kirsches head, blue eyes stared back from the reflection of the mirror in front of her.

It was only then that two things hit Sakura. The first was the fact that she was somehow looking at both the mirror before her and Kirsche behind her at the same time. The second was that the blue eyes in the mirror, so much like Kirsche's, were both very much her own and very strange (there was something off about them that Sakura just couldn't pinpoint). As all of Sakura's attention moved to her reflection, Sakura realized that a black dot was moving across her right eye until it sat in the center of the blue portion of her eye. Only once it had settled there did Sakura realize that until then only her left eye had had a pupil—that was what had seemed so weird before. Now both of her eyes looked just like Kirsche's.

The little girl leaned forward on the vanity, her eyes wide as she practically pressed her face against the mirror in disbelief. And then, as Sakura watched, her pinprick pupils grew until they were normal sized and a moment latter the blues of her eyes flickered back to green. The warmth that she had been feeling until then deserted her as exhaustion and disappointment came to fill its place. Sakura leaned back from the mirror and rubbed her arms, trying to warm them up again, only to find that her skin wasn't cold. A moment later Sakura smiled sleepily to herself. She had done it. She had really done it!

Sakura pushed away from the vanity, planning to tell Kirsche of her success, only for her vision to tunnel with the sudden movement. The next thing Sakura knew, she was waking up to sunlight filtering in through the window. She felt as bad as she had when she'd first arrived in this New Suna, only this time she was feeling content with herself rather than terrified. That, and her leg didn't hurt as much anymore either. That was a bonus. Perhaps she should practice walking some more before anyone realized she was awake...

* * *

*For those who are unaware, geta are traditional wooden Japanese shoes that can be hard to walk in. If you want to know more about what they look like and why they are hard to walk in, just Google Image geta and you'll see for yourself.

Well, I hope people liked this chapter, and I hope to get reviews, since they encourage me to find time to write. Now that it's summer, I should be able to type a bit more often, but as always, I am still busy, so I can't promise a date for the next chapter, only that there _will be_ a next chapter (it's already partially written).

**One question I do have that I would like people to answer** is whether they would like me to 'speed' through Sakura's time in the past via chapters with mass overviews, or would you rather that I go more into detail about what happens in the past and what exactly Sakura is learning.

Reviews and constructive criticisms shall usher in a new chapter faster, flames will be put out before they destroy said chapter. Now, onto the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: general zargon (what questions were you wanting answered?), chidoroppu (I can't say whether you are right or wrong, but I'm always happy to hear what people think), MaroonAngel of Darkness (yes, she will return to her own time and reunite with Gaara. For the rest you will just have to wait and see), Black-footed (I'm glad you understood the need for such a reaction), funbunny99, Sariko-chan723 (I'm glad you like Kirsche's role in things), magen chavarria (Well, I can't answer your question yet since what will happen to Gaara is one of the main questions that only time can tell), MidnightKat1 (I hope I didn't make you wait too long), & Nella -heart for reviewing!


	24. Two Tactless Twins

Disclaimer: Nope, no change in ownership since last I checked…

Chapter 24: Two Tactless Twins

(And Another Who is Semi-Tactless)

Five days had passed since Sakura had first awoken in New Suna, and Kirsche had finally given her the OK to go outside. Of course there were restrictions. As Kirsche had warned her before, Sakura was to keep her Eyes activated for the duration of her time outside of her room. Aside from that she had also been given instructions to keep constant watch on her Chakra stores, to avoid looking at the sky unnecessarily—Sakura hadn't asked why, fearing yet another lecture on Natures Light—to avoid angering ninja, to not spend too much of the money Kirsche had handed her this morning, and a bunch of other things that the little girl didn't feel she had to be reminded about. Sakura already had her day planed out, she was going to explore what she could of New Suna before she had to return to the Inn, but first Youko had insisted they go shopping and the pink haired child couldn't argue.

Sakura looked at her reflection in the vanity mirror, pulling on the loose Suna clothing that Youko was letting her borrow until she could buy her own. These particular clothes apparently had been buried in Youko's closet since she had outgrown them. They were a bit big on Sakura, especially the shorts-turned-pants that she kept tripping over, but Sakura tried not to let it bother her; she had gotten over the worst of her sudden-growth-induced clumsiness and felt up to the challenge of not falling on her face every time she stepped on the hem of Youko's pants. Her willingness to wear the shorts-turned-pants was bolstered by the fact that she knew she wouldn't be wearing them for much longer.

A knock on the door broke into Sakura's concentration and a quiet voice that sounded like Youko's asked, "Are you ready?" It sounded like Youko, but thanks to the door etiquette Sakura knew better.

"Just a moment," Sakura said as she grabbed the drawstring pouch with the money Kirsche had given her and then hurried to open the door. Outside the door stood a Youko lookalike, only their hair was barely long enough to be pulled back. The first time Youko had introduced the two, Sakura had been shocked, unaware that Youko had an identical twin sister. When she had said so, Youko burst out laughing while the quieter twin responded with only the lightest of blushes that he was _not_ Youko's sister. Sakura nearly laughed at the memory. She had never known before that her daddy had looked and sounded like a girl when he was a kid.

"Sis is downstairs," stated the boy calmly. "Mother wants us to run some errands while we are out." Shin smiled softly before he added, "Mother also said I had better get you before she finished telling Sis what all we have to do. I think she feared that Sis would barge in while you were changing." Sakura grinned and nodded jubilantly as she followed Shin through the Inn, holding up the sides of her pants so she wouldn't fall down the stairs. They had almost reached the first floor when Shin turned around and asked quietly, almost as if he were embarrassed to do so, "Why are your eyes blue today?"

Sakura missed the last step in shock, and only avoided falling thanks to Shin being right in front of her. "S-sorry," Sakura stumbled as Shin steadied her with both hands, "I—my Eyes—" Sakura looked down at where her feet were under the shorts-turned-pants as she finished in a whisper, "Kirsche said I need to practice." Sakura could practically feel Shin's eyes staring at her, and even though she felt more comfortable around him and Youko than she did most people she had just met, she still was in the process of adjusting to her future-family treating her like she was their age and at times she found it hard to know how she should speak to them. Time traveling could be so confusing sometimes.

Suddenly a thought hit Sakura and her head flew up as she reached out and grabbed one of Shin's arms in fright, "Please don't tell anyone about my eyes!" Sakura hadn't even thought to ask it before, "Kirsche said that if people know my eyes aren't usually blue they'll be mean to me!" Shin looked taken aback; his grey eyes wide, the small smile having fallen from his face. "Please don't tell!" Sakura pleaded again, tugging on the boy's arm, her shyness momentarily forgotten as she envisioned multiple, even nastier, Akais coming after her with kunai.

Shin blinked once, then twice, and then he looked at her hand on his arm, and then he turned his eyes back to Sakura's face only to blink at her a few times more in what could only be confusion. Finally he gently removed her hand from his arm and held it as he answered calmly, "I will not, and I will tell Sis too; though I do not know why people would be mean just because of that…" Turning around, he pulled Sakura after him, continuing in a soft voice as they passed through the empty hallway, "…besides, I think your eyes looked better when they were green."

Sakura wasn't given any time to think about this blunt statement as just then Youko threw a door open and ran right up to them, shouting something about their mother having given her extra shopping money before grabbing her brother's hand and dragging him, and thus Sakura, behind her and out into the streets of New Suna. What ensued was a more exhausting day than Sakura could ever have imagined.

* * *

As was expected, Youko's first stop was a clothing shop. Now, Sakura had gone shopping with her aunt plenty of times, but as this younger Youko made her try on what felt like everything in the store, Sakura promised herself to never let Youko take her shopping for clothing again…at least, not until she grew out of whatever fashion-crazed phase she was in.

"No," Sakura announced shyly as the mahogany haired girl thrust yet another of the latest trends in her face, "I—I, I don't like that." Youko shrugged and put it down. Sakura almost sighed in relief, but then she caught Shin's look; he didn't get a chance to give her any more of a warning before Youko was thrusting shorts that had legs that hung like skirts in her face—or at least, Sakura assumed that's what the ugly yellow-green garments were. It didn't really matter; she wasn't going to put them on. Finally fed up with Youko's antics, Sakura looked up to the older girl and said with more assurance than she had before, "I can find something on my own."

Youko opened her mouth—to argue or otherwise, Sakura never got to find out, because just then Shin tapped his sister on the shoulder and then pointed out of the store. Sakura didn't understand what this was supposed to mean until Youko's face lit up and she squealed, "Karu-Chi! Good eyes baby brother!" And with that she roughly passed the strange hat-scarf-thing in her hands over to her brother before bolting in the direction of her friend, shouting over her shoulder as she did, "I'll be back in just a moment!" Sakura stood and stared as the hyperactive girl disappeared from view, chasing after Karura—who, as far as Sakura could tell, was nowhere in sight.

Behind her Shin sighed, causing Sakura to turn around to look at him. His arms were empty and he was shaking his head as he cleaned up the clothing his sister had previously tossed aside. "We should try a different store while she is gone." He stated calmly once the store no longer looked like a sandstorm had passed through.

"But what about Youko?" Sakura queried hesitantly, "She said she'd be right back."

Shin shrugged, "Her version of being right back," he began, sticking one hand in his pocket while the other went to guide the pink haired girl by the elbow, "is nothing like the rest of the world's version." As they exited the shop, he added, "If we are lucky, you will have finished picking out clothes before she gets back."

"And if we aren't lucky?" Sakura asked, looking at Shin rather than where she was going. Shin jerked on her elbow just in time to pull her out of the way of an angry looking adult. Sakura stumbled but thanks to the cause of her stumble, didn't fall. Once she had straightened and before she could thank him, he pulled her out of the crowd and into another store. It was smaller and quieter than the one Youko had taken them to, and immediately Sakura could see why. There were none of the 'latest fashions' at this store; the pants looked like pants, the skirts like skirts, and there were no hats to be confused with scarves. Sakura grinned. She already liked this place.

Only once they were in the right section did Shin release his hold on her elbow, saying without looking at Sakura's face, "The clothing here might be a bit plain, but…" Sakura shook her head, not that he could see, and then she thanked him before turning to the clothing rack. Within twenty minutes Sakura had picked out new outfits, purchased them, and had changed clothes so that she was wearing simple beige shorts and a maroon shirt. The two of them were just exiting the shop when a mahogany blur barreled into the both of them.

Youko squeezed the two in a tight hug, squealing, "You left without me! That's so mean!" Then, backing up to arm's length, she looked over Sakura's new clothes, and then sighed before turning around and cupping her hands around her mouth to shout over the crowd, "This way, Karu-Karu! I found them!" Youko waved madly at the crowd, bouncing up and down until finally Karura's blond head could be seen emerging from the wall of morning shoppers. By the time Karura had made it all the way over to where Sakura was, the pink haired child was rubbing her eyes—not because of her Kekkei Genkai or because she was tired, but rather because she was seeing double. There were two Karuras.

Sakura tried not to stare as the mirror images approached. With a feeling of déjà vu Sakura wondered why she hadn't been told that Karura had a twin sister. When said 'twin sister' spoke gruffly, telling Youko to quit bouncing like a maniac, Sakura was glad she hadn't said anything. As with Shin, Karura's 'twin sister' was anything but a sister—unlike Shin, the boy's voice was definitely lower than his sister's, pointing out that despite their identical clothing and haircut, they were indeed different genders. Or at least, Sakura hoped she was coming to the right conclusion.

Youko, unaware of the reason for Sakura's confusion, stated jovially, "Come on, Kura, surely you remember Karu, you just met the other day!" Sakura nodded numbly. Youko hit her square in the back with more force than a pat-on-the-back usually required, speaking to the twins as she did so, "Look what my baby brother's done! You'd think our grandma had dressed her." Sakura's eyes dropped to her feet. She didn't think she looked that bad. Youko, unaware of Sakura's hurt feelings, began to say something else to do with grandmothers, only to be interrupted by Karura.

"That's enough, Youko, she looks just fine." Turning her indigo eyes on Sakura, she added softly, "Don't mind this idiot, she means well, but…"Karura shrugged, then dodged the playful punch that Youko had aimed for her shoulder, before her eyes locked back on Sakura's. "Anyhow, you look great, but, um…" Sakura watched as the normally calm girl fidgeted, "…I have a question. Your eyes…" Sakura paled, but before she could say anything, Shin was next to Karura, whispering something in her ear—when the older girl's eyes widened and she nodded, Sakura figured that Shin had passed on her wish for her true eye color to remain secret.

Once Shin backed off (Sakura realized at the last moment that Karura's twin was glaring at him, though she couldn't begin to guess why), Karura nodded again, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. "I see, but I still have a question. Does your sister have eyes like yours right now and pink hair about to here?" She motioned with her hand as Sakura nodded, "If so, I think I saw her setting up a booth in the bazaar. That was right about when Youko grabbed me and started dragging me and my brother away, though, so I can't be sure it was her. Any clue what she was selling?" When the answer was no, Youko butted into the conversation, deciding for all of them that their destination was now the bazaar. They had no choice in the matter.

The bazaar was an overly crowded square with stalls everywhere, selling everything from lizards on a stick to the finest imported silk, and all around people were talking or yelling or harking their goods. Sakura looked around at everything, her eyes wide as she realized that she actually recognized this place. She had been to the bazaar a few times before back in the Old Suna, but she hadn't realized that this was where she was immediately because this New Suna's bazaar was only half the size of the one she was used to—not that she was complaining. Too crowded was too crowded, no matter the size of the bazaar, but smaller was at least a little bit better.

Soon Sakura was struggling just to keep up with Youko's pace, all of her attention turning from the vendors that had initially caught her eye to the ground as she fumbled to stay upright and on the run. She wasn't even aware that Karura had taken the lead until they suddenly came to a halt and the sandy-haired girl pointed towards a stall off to the side of the main portion of the bazaar, near a rundown building, facing the full force of the morning sun. The stall itself was covered by cloth and on top of the cloth sat a number of different items such as cards, colored sticks and a glass orb. Above the stall was a sign that read "Fortune Telling" and before the stall sat a middle-aged man on a stool, addressing the person who could only be Kirsche—a fluttery veil was hiding her face and she was wearing such gaudy clothing that Sakura wondered how all those sequins weren't blinding the man in front of the stall—but even from here Sakura could see Kirsche's pink hair poking out from under the veil.

Youko was the first one to break the silence. "So pretty…See, Kura, even your sister knows what looks go—ow! Karu-Chi, that hurt!" Karura whistled, feigning innocence as she stretched her arms, including the elbow that had just hit Youko's side, out in front of her. Karura's brother said something in his sister's defense, but Sakura barely noticed any of this as they continued to near the stall. Her eyes were glued on Kirsche as she reached out a hand and picked up the thick stack of cards, shuffling them before handing the deck to the man. As their small group edged closer to the stall, Sakura heard Kirsche tell the man to shuffle the deck again as much as he would like while thinking about his situation before splitting the deck and returning it to her. By the time the man had finished mixing the cards together sloppily—or frantically, Sakura wasn't sure which—they were close enough that Sakura could now make out Kirsche's pinprick pupils staring at the cards over the top of her semi-sheer veil.

Once the deck was replaced on the table, Kirishe drew one card at a time, placing six of them face down before the man in a plus-sign pattern. "This represents you, now," Kirsche said as she flipped over the center card, revealing a pitcher with water being poured out of it, "an interesting first draw." As Kirsche said this her eyelids flickered closed, as if she were thinking. With her eyes still closed, Kirsche started to spout out possible reading of the card, but Sakura didn't hear a word of it. Why? Because she was too busy jumping in fright as Kirsche's closed eyes began to glow, and then she was busy questioning why Youko gave her a look for having done so. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't used to people's body parts randomly glowing. Looking around worriedly at first Youko, and then the rest of their small group who continued to watch Kirsche's explanation, Sakura came to the conclusion that it wasn't that they were used to things randomly glowing, but rather that no one else had noticed the glowing in the first place.

By the time she had figured this out, Kirsche's eyes were open again, the second card was face up revealing a crescent moon, and the strange glowing had stopped. "…however in your case, it would appear that together these represent a tipping point, a change in the phases of your life…" Sakura stared as something in Kirsche's voice caught her attention, making her try to see through Kirsche's veil to her hidden expression. "…this will show the underlying basis of the situation…" Kirsche continued, pointing towards the card nearest the man.

It wasn't until the third card, a kunai, was flipped over and Kirsche spoke again that Sakura knew why her attention had been captured. "…quite a dangerous looking card, is it not? You said you are a baker, so this should not represent your occupation…" Her voice seemed cold to the pink haired child even as Kirsche's eyes briefly closed again, the edges crinkling as if she were grinning. "So…" Kirsche drew out the syllable as the man squirmed, "it likely has to do with a fight or argument of some sort, yes?" The man didn't nod or shake his head, but Kirsche did as she flipped over the next card. "And so the lovers indicate your recent past…indeed, an argument would seem to be the cause of your troubles." As Kirsche said that the next card would explain what the man was seeking, Sakura noticed something odd—not about Kirsche this time, but the man. He had managed to quit squirming, but now his face was white—and had been since Kirsche had said 'lovers'—and his hands were shaking.

"It would seem…" Kirsche said solemnly as the fifth card was flipped to reveal an empty birdcage that was facing her, unlike all the other cards, which had faced the man, "…that you yourself do not quite know what you seek. To a bird a cage is a place of safety, a secure home, a place to return to, but at the same time…" Kirsche trailed off, her blue eyes closing once more. This time Sakura managed not to jump when Kirsche's eyes began glowing again. "For some," Kirsche continued quietly, her eyes still closed and glowing, "it is a place to escape to, for others a place to escape from…but always it remains a cage…" Kirsche's hand moved to hover over the final card, but she did not flip it, her eyes still closed as she sighed, then added, "But I don't think indecision is quite what this is indicating…but rather that what you seek is a solid way to view the results of your argument with the person indicated by the lovers…and yet, the answer is not a set thing…because like with a bird and a cage, the situation is defined not by the situation itself but rather in how you look at it." Sakura blinked in confusion but as she watched, the man became even paler, clearly having understood something the little girl had not.

As this was going on, Kirsche's hand finally lowered, touching the final card as she said, "And thus what lies ahead of you…" as she flipped the card over, the glowing ceased and Kirsche's blue eyes opened, her pinprick pupils focused on the man rather than the picture of the weighing scale with a feather on one side and what looked like a red rock on the other, "…is a balance…a balance between what you have done and what you have not as well as between what you want to do and what you should. The decision will be yours in the end, but remember, if you place too much on any one side of the balance, it will come crashing down on you. An unfitting end for—"

A loud bang interrupted Kirsche and this time Sakura wasn't the only one to jump when, without warning, the man balked, pushing away from the stand with a great heave. Throwing money at Kirsche, the man practically ran away from the stall, barreling into Sakura and Karura as he dashed away. Karura's arms pin-wheeled as she tried to regain her balance, almost hitting her brother in the face when he dashed forward to save her from falling. Sakura wasn't that lucky—she had neither a brother nor a sense of balance to protect her from her meeting with the ground. Both Youko and Shin made a grab for her, but both missed and soon Sakura's head was ringing as she fell on her injured leg and the breath went out of her. Kirsche was beside her in an instant, one hand going to her leg while the other went to help her sit up.

When soothing coolness spread through her leg the ringing in her ears dissipated and suddenly Sakura was aware of many things at once. The first was that that dull buzzing that had been hidden behind the ringing in her ears was actually Youko shouting after the man as both her brother and Karura tried to restrain her—from what she was shouting, Sakura sincerely hoped that they managed to keep hold of the irate girl, or else that man would be dying a very painful death. The second thing she noticed was that Karura's brother was glaring after the disappearing man, his hands digging into his pockets as if he were searching for something to throw at him. The third and biggest surprise awaiting Sakura's sudden awareness was the fact that Kirsche's hand on her leg was glowing like her eyes had been before—only there was another, different, more green-like colored glow this time too.

"What?" Sakura managed to rasp out as Kirsche moved her non-glowing hand from supporting Sakura's back to making a shushing motion.

"Shh…" Kirsche whispered, one finger to her veil-covered lips as her eyes flicked towards the others, "…later." And with that Kirsche stood up, both the bright green and the gentle opaque glowing ceasing instantly. Kirche's no-longer glowing hand was held out to help Sakura stand up, but before Sakura could take it, she felt hands under her armpits, pulling her upright. It was Shin, and he was gently leading her away from Kirsche's stall towards a more shaded place, saying something about letting the older girl get back to work as he did so.

Sakura looked up to thank him for his help only to have the breath nearly knocked out of her for the second time that day as first one, and then a second body hit her in quick succession, engulfing her in a hug. "Are you alright!?" Youko practically screamed in her right ear, while Karura asked the same question in a much quieter voice on her left.

While Youko muttered out all the different ways she was going to get revenge on the man who dared hurt her friends, Karura let go of Sakura and said worriedly, "You face is pale. Maybe we'd better get you home if you're not feeling well again."

"I'm fine," Sakura said quickly, but then winced as she moved to take a step, only for her injured leg to protest—whatever Kirsche had done to stop the pain earlier clearly hadn't gotten rid of the injury, and Youko's weight still hanging off of one shoulder wasn't helping any either. Both Karura and Youko's unbelieving stares made Sakura wince again. Hastily she rephrased her previous statement. "I—I'll be fine, really…" As the two girls continued to stare at her, Karura from arms-length away and Youko from her shoulder, Sakura found herself wanting to look anywhere but at them. They were being so nice to her, so concerned for her safety, and she wasn't used to it—other than Gaara and his siblings, no one had ever treated her like this.

She didn't even realize she was crying until Shin yanked his sister off of her, stating sternly, "Sis, can you not tell that you are too heavy for her." Youko swiveled on her heels, throwing a wild punch at her brother as she yelled at him—something about implying that she was fat—only to have her punch easily caught not by her brother, but Karura's brother.

"Kura is limping, Youko," the blond boy said calmly— and for the first time Sakura realized they had never been properly introduced. She didn't know Karura's brother's name, but even so he knew hers, or at least he knew the nickname Youko had called her earlier. Sakura felt her face heat up at this realization just as the boy added as he lowered Youko's raised fist, "You were hurting her. She cannot hold up your weight on top of her own if she hurts enough to limp. As someone aiming to be a doctor, you should have realized this earlier, even if your friend is too nice to tell you on her own." Youko yanked her wrist free, but even Sakura could tell that she looked both hurt and embarrassed, and it made her feel bad.

The pink haired girl waved her hands frantically, breaking the tension in the air as she squeaked, "I'm ok! I really am! I just landed on a bruise, that's all." Sensing Youko's souring mood, Sakura changed the subject, "But I wonder why that guy left so quickly, he looked angry. If he didn't want to know his future he shouldn't have asked Kirsche to do that card thingy. It's not her fault if he doesn't like the truth. He acted like a big baby."

For a moment, all those around her looked taken aback, but then Youko burst out laughing, Karura started giggling, Shin smiled and nodded, as if he agreed with Sakura's statement, and Karura's brother rolled his eyes and shook his head, chuckling. Their laughter was contagious, and soon Sakura was also snickering right along with them. She didn't even realize that they were being loud enough to be getting weird looks until Shin—the only one who had been able to avoid the laughing-disease if not the grinning-like-mad-disease—led them all out of the bazaar in the direction of a nearby park.

* * *

They had been in the park for all of five minutes when Karura mentioned how cool Kirsche had been and then Youko added in how Kirsche's predictions must have been spot on to get the man to react the way he did. To everyone's surprise, both Shin and Karura's brother snorted. When their two sisters glared at them, they shared a look while Sakura watched on in confusion as both sets of twins seemed to have a silent conversation full of glances, twitching eyebrows, and exasperated sighs. Finally Sakura got up the courage to break into the double-twin stare-down to ask, "What's going on?"

Once again the boys shared a glance, but this time Shin ended up shrugging and motioning with one hand towards Karura's brother. The blond boy nodded, then turned his indigo eyes on Sakura as he said bluntly, "You know, your sister didn't really just read that man's future, she—"

"She did too!" yelled Sakura, only to clap her hand over her traitorous mouth a breath later. Hadn't Kirsche reminded her just that morning not to discuss Time Walker's abilities to her friends—not to mention she had just interrupted someone by yelling in their face; that was just plain rude of her, even if he _was_ wrong.

To her surprise, the blond boy smiled gently, apparently not angry at all for having been interrupted or surprised that she believed in Kirsche's fortune telling abilities. "I know you're sticking up for your sister and her way of making a living—that's very commendable of you—but surely you don't believe she can really see the future." Sakura bit her cheek to stop herself from giving away anything Kirsche had designated as Hoshi secrets, but her hands still shook in their place over her mouth. She really wanted to correct him. Lucky for her, Youko had no such qualms holding her back from entering in to the conversation on Sakura's side of the argument.

"What are you talking about, you blockhead?" Youko queried hotly as she positioned herself between the boys and Sakura. As Karura came to stand beside Youko, the mahogany haired girl continued, hands on her hips, "You were right there with the rest of us, you couldn't have missed it. She told him about an argument he had had that he hadn't told her about before, and then she went on to tell him to set things right with his lover or else they'd break up! She read his future. It was clear as day that—and what is so funny?!"

Karura's brother was still chuckling as he answered, "Don't you see, you were fooled just as easily as that b—that man was." When Karura took a step forward—whether to back up her friend or something else Sakura didn't get to find out—the blond boy's face turned serious as he held out his hand, as if to prove that he was unarmed, and quickly said, "I'm not trying to make fun of you for not noticing, but it's the truth. She didn't read his future, she just read him." When Karura's eyebrow rose questioningly, he added, "We arrive after he and Kura's sister had been talking for a while, so we likely missed her initial inquiry into the reason he wanted his fortune told, but I can assure you that she sounded him out, because even as she was supposedly telling him his fortune she was still observing and manipulating him into arriving at his own answers. Isn't that right, Shin?"

The other boy nodded, "He is right. All she did was say vague statements that could be bent to fit any number of situations, and then based the rest of her statements on his reaction. Sis, you yourself said that he had had an argument with his lover and that he had been told to make up quickly, but never once did Kirsche say that. It was an assumption you made based on Kirsche's words and the man's reactions. In the same way, that man reacted to her words based on his own understanding of the situation." He shrugged as all three girls stared at him with wide eyes. "Basically, not only did Kirsche never say what the man's situation directly was, she never really knew his future or his past, all she knew was what he gave away himself." He paused and then added with a glance at Karura, "Like your brother said, Kirsche is just observant, not psychic."

Sakura kept her mouth shut as Karura's brother once again stated, as if it was just a fact that they had to accept, that it was impossible to see the future. Although what he and Shin had said made sense, she knew they were wrong. She also knew better than to correct them as the other girls' faces dropped along with their shoulders as they grudgingly accepted their brothers' statements that fortune telling was just a business strategy. Sakura shook her head to herself as she remembered Kirsche's cold voice earlier that day as she told that man about the card with the kunai—Kirsche had really known something, what exactly, Sakura didn't know, but she had a feeling that even if Kirsche hadn't really read that man's future, she had at least seen something in his past to make her angry. If her new friends wanted to think that real fortune telling was a sham, she wouldn't stop them, but she wouldn't stoop so low as to think that Kirsche had lied or simply manipulated her customer.

An arm landing on her shoulders broke Sakura out of her thoughts with a jerk, "You don't need to pout just because we know your sister isn't really psychic." Sakura crossed her arms, refusing to look at Karura's brother as he continued, knowing very well that he was wrong, "She might be a fake in the sense that her fortune telling isn't real, but from what I've seen, she is almost acting like a counseling service for those who would otherwise never ask for advice. Really she seems quite smart…I'd almost say shrewd, except she doesn't appear to be taking advantage of her customers either, she just knows how much she should and should not reveal to help them figure things out on their own." Sakura's continued silence made him pause, and then suddenly he turned and put both hands on her shoulders, bending down so that he could look her straight in the eye.

Sakura couldn't exactly avoid his look when he was six inches from her face, but what she didn't understand was why he wasn't saying anything. He just kept looking and looking, as if there was a secret written on her face that he was trying to decode. What felt like an hour passed by before he sighed and straightened back up, his hands not moving from her shoulders. "You know," the boy said calmly with a rueful smile, "I can't tell if you're angry because I've exposed the truth and because you're afraid we'll ruin your sister's business or if you're angry because you actually think she's psychic. If it's the former, you don't need to worry since nothing any of us said would change people's opinion about whether or not she's a fake, and if it's the latter…well, you are getting to an age where you should learn that things like psychics don't really exist; I apologize if you feel disillusioned, but that is the truth."

For a few moments Sakura could only stare at the older boy, torn between the desire to prove him wrong by telling him the truth, and the desire to stalk off angrily since she _knew_ she couldn't tell him the truth and she was unwilling to lie. She eventually settled on giving a small smile. "Thank you," she whispered halfway to him, halfway to her feet. He might be wrong on both accounts, but he was still trying to comfort her—someone whom he had only met that same day, someone who, she remembered, still didn't even know his name—and she was thankful for his kindness. Sakura was about to ask what she should call him when Shin tapped the other boy's shoulder, silently directing his attention towards a tree on the opposite end of the park surrounded by a bunch of small children.

As their small group approached the tree curiously, one of the little kids, a boy about Sakura's real age, saw them and ran over, his face scrunched up in fear. "Please!" He cried, grasping the first hand he could get ahold of—Youko's—and trying to drag her back to the tree, "Help! Sena's stuck!" As he said this he pointed up towards the leafy branches. Sakura couldn't see anything but green, however as the boy said something about getting a ball from the tree, Sakura realized that she could faintly hear sniffling coming from above her head.

"Okay!" Youko exclaimed, startling the boy into letting go of her hand, "Don't you worry, big sis will go save him." With this Youko was already starting to pull herself onto the nearest branch.

For a moment, Sakura was frozen as the sight of her future aunt hanging off of a branch brought up a memory—a warning—from Youko herself to Sakura back in Old Suna, when her arm had still been in a sling. "Don't," Sakura cried as Youko headed for the next branch, "you'll fall and break your arm!" Youko didn't seem to hear her warning as, while holding on with one hand, she tried to swing to another branch, only to miss. Her hand slipped.

Sakura screamed.

Youko screamed.

Meanwhile Karura's scowling twin was in the air, catching the falling girl while Karura stared on with terrified eyes, her hands in a death grip on a white-faced Shin's arm. When the blond boy safely reached the ground, he dumped Youko unceremoniously on her butt and then shouted, "Are you an idiot?" Karura's brother looked furious as he continued to reprimand his friend, "What do you think you were doing? Were you trying to get yourself killed? You're not a ninja, Youko! You can barely even control your Chakra let alone safely climb a tree that high!" Although he was practically shouting as if he were angry, Sakura realized that he was shaking because he had been afraid, not because he was angry. Though, she was pretty sure he _was_ angry.

Youko didn't seem to realize this, though, as she yelled back, "I could _too_ get there! I bet I could even go twice as high and still be fine!" The blond boy rolled his eyes. Youko scowled, snapping, "I wouldn't have slipped if _someone_ hadn't bounced onto the branch right next to me without warning!"

"Youko!" admonished both Shin and Karura, their voices in sync as they neared the fallen girl. Youko crossed her arms and turned away from the hand-up Karura was offering her. Shin frowned, mumbling something that Sakura didn't catch. Youko just 'hmphed' and pushed herself off the ground, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Sakura, too happy that her aunt was unharmed to bother being angry, ran and hugged the red-face girl. It didn't occur to her that this wasn't really her aunt yet, that Youko probably didn't know her well enough to expect something as forward as a hug from such a shy girl, and that until recently Sakura had still been struggling to adjust to her well-known-family-members-who-had-suddenly-become- strangers—none of this occurred to her as she mumble into Youko's shirt how happy she was that Youko hadn't broken her arm; that is, it didn't occur to her until Youko hugged her back, suddenly squealing out what a cute little sister she had just obtained for herself. As Youko picked Sakura up and started swinging her in a circle, Sakura saw Karura's brother running one hand through his hair while shaking his head, making her realize that Youko had already forgotten the dramatic incident that had just transpired.

Sakura was starting to get dizzy when two arms reached into Youko's zone-of-happiness and plucked the pink haired child from the older girl's grip. Shin set her down, then told his sister to not exhaust her friends. Youko stuck her tongue out at him, then reached out to grab Sakura again, only to be blocked by her brother while Karura shook her head in the background at Youko's antics. If Sakura hadn't noticed that Karura's twin was missing, Youko might have claimed Sakura as her own little sister whom she was never going to share; as it was, Sakura interrupted Youko unintentionally by turning to Karura and asking, "Where's your brother?"

The girl looked shocked for a moment, but she didn't look around for her brother. Instead Karura lifted her finger as if she were about to point somewhere, then lowered it again and said with a small smile, "He'll be right back, Kura, don't worry about him." Sakura's head tilted to the side as she wondered if he'd had to go potty so bad he'd left without telling them.

A flash out of the corner of her eye broke into Sakura's concentration, making her head snap up as two glowing feet landed on a branch a few feet above her head. The branches rustled as those two feet hopped down to a lower branch, revealing Karura's brother with a brown haired five-year-old in his arms. The five-year-old was clutching a brown ball to his chest tightly, his face tear-stained. The moment Karura's brother jumped from the last branch to the ground, his feet stopped glowing and he lowered the child to his own unsteady feet. The moment the five-year-old was on the ground he ran over to an older girl with the same hair color and the lighter-haired boy who had grabbed Youko's hand, wailing at the top of his lungs about how scared he'd been.

Karura would later tell Sakura that never once did the ball leave the child's hands, but at the time, Sakura's attention had been glued on Karura's twin brother and so she had missed the touching brother-sister reunion.

"So cool…" Sakura didn't even realize she'd said it out loud until all eyes were on her. She turned red as she noticed that not only had she spoke aloud, but that somehow she had missed the disappearance of all the other kids.

Youko raise an eyebrow and asked, "What's cool, Kura?" with a large grin on her face that somehow made Sakura feel like she was trying to hint at something. Whatever it was, Sakura didn't get it, and so instead she answered honestly, her red cheeks already back to their normal color.

"He was," the pink haired girl said, motioning towards Karura's brother, "He was just like a ninja!" A moment of silence followed this statement, then Youko burst out laughing while her brother and best-female-friend rubbed their ears at her outburst. Karura's brother was rubbing his head rather than his ears, but at the same time he was smiling, as if she had just made a joke that fell flat, but, in having fallen flat, was still somehow amusing.

"W-what so funny?" Sakura asked, looking around desperately for an answer. Youko tried to reply, but every time she began to say something, she burst out laughing again and any attempt to sober up was ruined.

It was her future uncle who eventually enlightened her, "Kura, he is not like a ninja…he _is_ a ninja." Sakura's jaw dropped. He seemed too young to be a ninja.

Karura nodded and for a moment Sakura thought she was reading her mind, but then the girl said with a proud look on her face, "It's true, he graduated from the academy about six months ago."

"Oh…" Sakura whispered, her mind whirling around her. Suddenly it stopped on a thought and Sakura spun to face Karura's lookalike and grabbed his hands, "Can you teach me how to be a ninja?" Unlike Youko earlier, Sakura's unexpected forwardness made the boy momentarily freeze in place. "Everyone I ask keeps telling me it's impossible even though I can already use my Chakra and—"

"No." The reply came abruptly, almost curtly, shocking Sakura into silence. She felt as if she had been slapped. What had she been thinking, asking a near-stranger to do something that not even Temari had been willing to do, let alone any of the adults who knew and cared for her. She dropped his hands as tears started threatening to fall from her suddenly blurry eyes. If she hadn't been rubbing her eyes in an attempt to fight back her tears, she would have seen the pained, almost frightened look that passed over the blond boy's face or how he ruffled his own hair in frustration when his sister glared at him. She did feel when Karura wrapped her arms around her shaking shoulders comfortingly, though it wasn't until she heard a 'smack' that she looked up from her blurry feet.

Youko had once again tried to throw a punch, and like before her best friend's brother had caught her fist in his hand. Unlike last time, Youko gritted her teeth and ordered, "Apologize! You made Kura cry! Apologize or…or I'll kick you where it hurts!"

Shin seemed about ready to pull his sister away from his friend, warning her that using physical violence against a ninja was useless when the blond haired boy shook his head, disengaging himself from the angry girl and coming to stand before the pink haired child still wrapped in his sister's arms. Absentmindedly the boy rubbed his head again and sighed.

"I wasn't trying to be mean, Kura," the blond began, "but not only are you not a Suna citizen…or a citizen of any ninja village for that matter…but Karura has told me plenty about how you are always bedridden. Even if you want to be a ninja, it's simply impossible." This was not what Sakura wanted to hear. She wanted to refute everything he said so badly, and yet all she could do was start sobbing as she realized that once again she couldn't tell him the truth. Karura held her tighter and started crooning under her breath as her brother attempted to apologize again, but the tears just wouldn't stop coming.

Sakura cried and cried until she no longer knew why she was crying, and then she continued crying until she felt light headed and had to stop. Rubbing her eyes, Sakura looked around at everyone and sniffled out an apology. When Karura's brother smiled gently and patted her head, saying that he was sorry too, Sakura shook her head in an almost exhausted stupor. "No," she croaked, "I'm sorry…" in her mind she ranted on and on about how stupid it had been for her to ask something like that of a near-stranger, especially one she was lying to, but all she could eventually find the energy to say aloud was "…I don't know your name…"

"You're asleep on your feet," the boy with the indigo eyes chuckled as Sakura felt her eyelids droop.

"Yashamaru," said Karura near the girl's ear. Sakura's eyes jerked open, trying to catch sight of her best friend's uncle. The only person in her line of sight, though, was Karura's lookalike. As her eyes fluttered closed again, Sakura thought that perhaps she had misheard Karura. "We should have said so earlier, but I guess we got a bit caught up in things," continued Karura, not noticing Sakrua's nearly closed eyes, "my brother's name is Yashamaru."

If Sakura hadn't been so close to sleep, she would have jumped at that revelation.

* * *

Well, that's one supper long chapter…the size of two, actually; hope that makes up for the wait a bit, not that you shouldn't be used to month long waits by now. As always, I'm busy with work and school and now I'm also preparing to move on top of everything else…It's hectic! Free time, oh, where art thou?

Anyhow, what I got out of my review-polls was that people were fine with remaining in the past so long as they could find out about things going on back with Gaara and the others. Don't worry, that will indeed happen once I get to the point in the story where it can.

Also, just to let people know, I am most likely to update my stories on the weekends.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to have their fortune told by Kirsche, flamers, however, shall be mistaken by Youko for the baker and be chased down so that she can torture them to death…now that that threat is out in the air, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: MidnightKat1 (I'm glad you like the story), Elle Blessingway (I appreciate your in-depth review), Genuinely-Unique, Black-footed, MaroonAngel of Darkness, Nella -heart, chidoroppu (All I can say without giving anthing away is that you are certainly on the right tract), Random-k (I'm glad to hear what you think might happen...you were closer with some of your guesses than others, though I won't say which), Isis36, Sariko-chan723, annarolls (I'm so glad to hear from you again! In answer to your question about the Scroll, no, the user does not reappear exactly when they left) &, SnowWolfSpirit for reviewing!


	25. Herstory about Theirstory

Disclaimer: Own? I doubt it.

Chapter 25: Herstory about Theirstory (AKA History)

The world was moving at a sickening, twirling speed…

This was the first thing Sakura noticed as her eyelids fluttered open. Nearly ten seconds passed before her blurry eyes cleared and she realized where she was and at least some of the reason for the moving world. Shin was carrying her piggy-back with Youko walking beside him. Karura was nowhere in sight and neither was her brother…what was his name? Sakura's tired mind worked to remember…she knew she'd been told. She had been falling asleep—why, she didn't know—and Karura had said…

…Yashamaru…

The world stopped moving forward without warning, though the twirling continued. Sakura hadn't even begun to wonder why when Youko's face was right in front of where hers lay on Shin's shoulder. "She's awake!" The preteen's voice rang in Sakura's ears as Youko first moved her hand to Sakura's forehead, then to Sakura's wrist. As Youko said something about a weak pulse Sakura realized that she mustn't have been asleep long—the sun appeared to be in about the same position as before.

Sakura forced her head up, feeling as if she were lifting a boulder instead, and looked around. They were on a crowded street a few blocks away from the Inn…and Youko was staring at her while Shin adjusted his grip on her legs, asking if she wanted down. Youko interrupted her brother, her voice dropping to almost a whisper as a stranger passed them by, "Kura, your eyes are green again."

Sakura's first reaction was to snap her eyes closed—she distantly noted that somehow the world still appeared to be spinning despite the lack of eyesight—and her second reaction was call forth her Chakra and that warm feeling that was her Kekkei Genkai. Nothing happened. Her Chakra hadn't responded. Delving deeper within herself, Sakura found only emptiness and fear—the fear grew larger and heavier as another attempt to call on her Chakra failed. Sakura didn't know it, but her body was beginning to hyperventilate as her consciousness continued to seek her Chakra, unconsciously remembering Kirsche's warning about the loss of all Chakra meaning death. The pink haired child was on the verge of hysterics when she caught the faintest of glimmers which, upon closer inspection, revealed a handful of Chakra. It wasn't enough to do anything with, but at least it was there.

"What is wrong?" Sakura wasn't sure which of the twins had said it, but she guessed it to have been Shin.

Sakura let out a shaky breath and lowered her head back to Shin's shoulder, not bothering to open her eyes. "I'm okay," she whispered, "but my Chakra's gone." If Sakura had had the energy, she might have gone on to call herself five kinds of idiots, but instead she could only wonder tiredly why she hadn't noticed that she was nearly out of Chakra earlier. The pink haired child could feel her face turn red when she remembered that, despite Kirsche's warnings, she'd gotten distracted shopping and had forgotten all about checking up on her Chakra.

After a few moments of silence Shin started moving again. This time when a voice sounded she was sure it was him. "Then just close your eyes. I will make sure that you make it back to your room safely." And so he did. Only one person briefly stopped them, and that was his mother, Megumi, who was startled upon seeing Sakura's seemingly unconscious state as the children entered the inn. They were expeditiously rushed upstairs to Sakura's room with word that Megumi herself would be up soon to see to 'the poor dear'.

As soon as the door was closed Sakura opened her eyes, only to close them again as she realized she was facing the open window and the all-too-bright sun that, for the instant that she had seen it, seemed to be swimming in the sky as if it were the ocean. Sakura waited until Shin had deposited her on her bed before she opened her eyes again, shielding them from the bright light. Sakura was relieved to find that the world had ceased its continuous twirling, though the image of the twins before her continued to sway like the sun had earlier; at least they were staying relatively steady. That had to be a good sign.

Youko plopped down beside Sakura on the bed while her brother came to stand next to the two of them. "Soooo…" Youko drew out, her face showing more curiosity than concern, "how'd you run out of Chakra? I never saw you use any Jutsu. Do you even know any Jutsu? And why would you want to be a ninja? Mom always says that the Hoshi hate violence and that they left Konoha because they were tired of being forced to be ninja. Can you even be a ninja with how weak you are—no offense, but if you're always collapsing like this you'll never—OWW! Shin, what was that for!?" Youko's brother hadn't really hurt her, but rather had simply pushed her shoulder enough to let her know to be quiet. Youko might not have taken the hint if Shin hadn't bent past her to look Sakura in the eye, his face showing all the concern that Youko's had lacked.

"You still do not look too well. How are you feeling?"

"Dizzy," Sakura answered truthfully with a shrug, not thinking much about it. She had felt about the same when she had first used The Scroll of the Circle.

"Why?" Youko asked as she shoved her brother out of her way. "I might not be very good at using Chakra, but unlike my baby brother I actually _can_ use it…and I have run out before, and sure it doesn't feel good, but it's never made me dizzy before, just tired. And you didn't answer my question. What in the world were you doing to lose your Chakra? And why—" Youko was once again cut off by her brother pushing her away from Sakura.

This time Shin didn't remove his hand from her shoulder, keeping his sister pushed far enough back that she couldn't get back in Sakura's personal space even if she tried—and try she did, but wood workers, even just apprentice wood workers, had more arm strength than a hospital intern like Youko could hope to surpass. Shin was speaking before Sakura got a chance to answer her future aunt. "Sis, if you would stop long enough to think, you would realize that the very act of turning her green eyes blue must require Chakra. And I have never heard of a Kekkei Genkai that did not." For a moment Sakura thought Youko would attack her brother verbally, if not outright physically, for this statement, but instead, after only a few seconds of glaring, Youko sighed and lightly brushed her brother's hand from her shoulder, muttering something under her breath that Sakura didn't catch.

After only a brief moment of hesitation, Shin drew back his arm as his sister leaned back on her elbows, apparently content on staying more than arm's length away from Sakura's face. "I guess you're right," Youko admitted a few moments later, "when I think about it, it does make sense—mostly—but I still don't see why she feels dizzy." Shin moved as if to speak on this, but his sister didn't let him get a word in. "Don't bother speculating, Shin, you can't even access your Chakra. You don't have the first clue what it's like to run out." Even distracted by her own physical discomforts, Sakura recognized a callous statement when she heard one and involuntarily flinched. On turning quickly to Shin, though, Sakura was surprise to see the boy just shrug.

His calm grey eyes caught her surprised ones and he shrugged again. "It is true, and I don't begrudge her it. If I could use Chakra my life would be much more hectic and someone would doubtlessly try to pressure me into becoming a ninja." Sakura's eyes brightened as this statement renewed her hopes of one day being able to join that particular profession –after all, she could now use Chakra, so maybe—

"With the whispers about war on the horizon," Shin continued nonchalantly, unaware of Sakura's thoughts, "there is a rush to get more able-bodied young people to fight for Suna, and that is just not something I want to do…" Shin's voice trailed off as he contemplated what he'd just said, and then his face quickly turned scarlet and he started moving his hands back and forth almost as animatedly as his sister would have as he hastened to say, "I am not saying I don't want to protect Suna—I love my village—I just don't like fighting." Sakura nodded understandingly and Shin's hand's ceased their movement though his face remained scarlet for a few more minutes as he bumbled through explanations about preferring to create things in wood, even puppets that could be used as weapons, to actively wielding weapons himself.

By the time Shin's face was back to its normal shade and Youko had quit shaking with withheld laughter Megumi was in the room, bustling about, trying to make Sakura more comfortable and ordering her children around to the same purpose. On more than one occasion Sakura attempted to assert that she was fine, but Megumi would hear none of it. As blankets piled up, miso soup was procured, and what looked like a whirlwind of arms, legs and mahogany hair swept through the room the pink haired girl gave up on arguing and allowed herself to be mothered by Megumi. She didn't have the energy to do otherwise.

* * *

"…so why did I see things glow, Kirsche?" Sakura asked after having explained the multiple occurrences of glowing body parts which she had witnessed that day.

Kirsche chuckled and pointed with a grin to her own blue, pinprick eyes. "It's because of these. When your Eyes are activated and someone within your line of sight is using a Jutsu you will perceive a glow that would be invisible to those without similar abilities. That glow only remains visible so long as the Jutsu is active…though what's considered 'active' can be a bit harder to explain…" This last part Sakura barely caught, and by the time she realized that she wanted further explanation, Kirsche was speaking again. "And so if you think back to what you saw when young Yashamaru was descending from the tree, you might be able to better understand. Yashamaru's feet appeared to be glowing because he was using a Jutsu to adhere to the—sorry, to adhere to means to stick to—in this case, stick to the tree. It's a Jutsu that requires decent Chakra control—too much Chakra and you break the branch, too little and you slip right off—and, as your Eyes told you, it usually focuses around the feet, though it can be put to use anywhere on the body."

Sakura's green eyes grew big as her hand flew into the air as if she were in class. With an indulgent smile, Kirsche nodded her head at Sakura, giving her permission to speak. Leaning forward on her bed, Sakura asked excitedly, "You said before that I have good Chakra control, so does that mean that I can walk up trees like ninja do?" Kirsche didn't answer right away, making Sakura dread the reaction most people gave her when she mentioned anything to do with herself and doing ninja-like things. Her dread grew larger when she recalled Youko's statement earlier about how Hoshi's usually disliked anything to do with fighting or ninja. But then Kirsche nodded her head and all seemed right in the world…or at least not so dreadful.

"Indeed you could…though I wouldn't suggest that you try such until you've built up your Chakra stores more. I doubt you would enjoy getting up into a tree only to find that you don't have enough Chakra to get yourself back down."

Sakura nodded seriously, her hand back in the air again. Another nod from Kirsche and she asked, "How will I know when I have enough built up?"

Kirsche smiled with something that might have been pride. "The exact timing would be up to you to decide, but you certainly would want to be at the point where you can go the entire day with your Eyes activated and still have plenty of energy and Chakra left over to continue your lessons at night. It would be even better if you could wait until after you reach the point where your evening lessons do not push you past the point of exhaustion, for that would prove that you are able to maintain active Jutsu for more than…well, for longer than you are currently able to."

Kirsche's eyes flashed with an emotion that Sakura couldn't name almost at the same moment that Sakura noticed, really noticed for the first time, the short-lived tiny tremble in Kirsche's pinprick pupils. As Kirsche began to suggest that they begin their lessons, realization hit Sakura in the face. In that instant she knew that, had her Eyes been activated, Kirsche's eyes would have just glowed that same opaque glow as they had in the bazar when she was reading that man's fortune…the same glow as Yashamaru's feet right before she had run out of Chakra…but not, she remembered, the same glow as the one she had noticed in-between those two events. When Kirsche had come to help her after Sakura had fallen, while everyone else had been looking after the departing angry-man, Kirsche's hand _had_ had the opaque glow, but it had also had a second, green glow.

Sakura's mind was whirling when Kirsche cleared her throat, her smile somehow appearing thinner than normal, "Eh-ehm, Sakura, don't you think we should get to your lessons now?" Sakura, being a lover of learning, almost immediately nodded in an affirmative, and if all the puzzle pieces flying around in her head hadn't come together, she would have…but just as her head began its automatic nod-response, it occurred to Sakura that Kirsche was changing the subject and her head froze in place.

"No." Sakura breathed out quietly to her lap, then louder a second time, "No…I want to know about the green glow." As the pink haired child remembered Kirsche's shushing of her earlier in the bazar her head popped up and she met Kirsche's eyes with more assuredness than she ever would have thought possible in such a situation, especially considering she felt like curling into a ball and hiding when she met ice-colored eyes that seemed to shout at her to say nothing at all. "I want to know now…" Sakura stated with bravado,"…not later."

Kirsche's smile stayed frozen in place, but after a few moments Sakura began to suspect that the gleam in her pinprick eyes was one that bellied mixed emotions. From the change of subjects Sakura could tell that Kirsche didn't want to talk about the green glow, but despite that, as Sakura looked into Kirsche's churning eyes, she felt as if she had somehow passed a test she hadn't even known she was taking. She wasn't sure how she felt about that…and she wasn't so sure that Kirsche knew how to feel about it either.

The frozen moment broke as a weak chortle fought its way from Kirsche, which grew into a louder, though somehow not-quite boisterous or even happy laugh, as Kirsche's face disappeared into the palm of one hand. Then, just as suddenly as the laughter had started it died away as the older girl's hand rose from covering her face to running through her hair. Her blue eyes snapped open and, facing Sakura, said with a half-smile, "I guess you did catch that…I wish I could say I wasn't surprised, but…" Kirsche shrugged—as if that answered anything—and then she straightened, folding her hand in her lap with a small, unstrained smile. The churning emotions in her eyes likewise vanished, but they weren't replaced with anything that Sakura could discern. It was almost, Sakura distantly thought, as if Kirsche had realized a mask she was wearing had slipped and she had finally gotten about to fixing it.

Sakura wasn't given any time to delve deeper into this thought, though, as Kirsche started to explain about the existence of different types of Jutsu of which included medical Ninjutsu, something that instantly caught Sakura's attention. Despite its being termed a Ninjutsu, Kirsche explained, the ability to heal was a highly held art amongst the Hoshi clan. It was also, just like their Time Walking capabilities, a tightly kept secret.

"You see," Kirsche explained solemnly, "especially at this point in time, though the same is true in your time as well, people capable of medical Ninjutsu are few and far between. I believe that Shin informed you earlier today about the current press for more ninja…in a similar way there is a press for people who can heal…so much so that they are willing to accept even people like Youko who have hardly any capability to do so. Her desire to heal, to be of help, and her ability to at least do the simplest of medical Ninjutsu immediately got her an internship at a hospital…though she wasn't good enough to warrant an actual apprenticeship with one of their few medics…that is something they will reserve for Yashamaru who will eventually show not only an interest in healing, but a real knack for not only medical Ninjutsu but other ninja arts as well."

After pausing to glance out at the setting sun, Kirsche added, "But the Hoshi don't want to be pressed into any village's war effort, and they would especially hate to be pressed into being a ninja simply because they are capable of both healing and hurting."

"Wait," Sakura interrupted just short of hesitantly, "so Hoshi can hurt people? Do you mean with…their Eyes?" Somehow that thought just didn't seem possible to Sakura, and not just because of the Hoshi's legendary passivity. Everything she had learned so far told her that, though useful for things like learning information or surviving in times of trouble, the Hoshi's abilities weren't at all applicable to harming others.

Kirsche shook her head, as she answered in an almost sad tone, "Most certainly, though you must understand…and I know you do…that one can harm others without ever physically harming them…though some Hoshi's could do that as well." This was said to the window, but the slightest tilt in Kirsche's head, the smallest droop in her shoulders, and the minutest lowering in her voice all conveyed to Sakura the feeling that the last bit, if not all of it, was likely aimed at Kirsche herself.

"Every Hoshi," continued the older girl to the window, "has some control of '_Sie Ausdehnung_'…or, as a rough translation, The Dimensions…which…I don't know how to directly explain it, but…if you think of what I did, when we first met, to the men who were attacking you and your friend, how I stopped them in place, that should give you some idea. I believe I told you at the time to think of it as if I had made the air around them not allow them to move, but that's not quite how it works. I did nothing to the actual air…only Elemental Walkers could do that. But every Hoshi has the ability to do something like what I did, though not all to the same degree. Some might only be able to…bend, I suppose…'_Sie Ausdehnung_' enough to, say…well, to barely keep a kunai from slashing their throat for instance…where as others might be able to…say…immobilize fifteen plus attackers and their flying shuriken at once."

Sakura had no doubt about whom Kirsche was referring to with this last statement.

"Maybe now you can see why the Hoshi were so sought after, why Konoha wanted them to become ninja and why other villages wanted to borrow their power. The Hoshi were peace lovers to begin with…and in fact, they joined the newly formed Konoha in the hopes of finally finding such peace, and for a time, they did. When they were pressed to do what their natures screamed against, to fight, to even kill…well, they got through the first Ninja War and thought that that would surely be that…but then the second Ninja War cropped up and once again they were called upon to fight not only Konoha's enemies, but their own upbringing. That ended up being more than they were willing to take, and after that war ended, they left Konoha to create a small village, all their own, one that was cut off from the rest of the world. And there they have dwelt from then to now…but…"

Kirsche shrugged, turning back to Sakura, "…from time to time a few Hoshi might leave the village to visit someone or someplace…mostly Time Walkers following a vision, or those Hoshi who have learned medical Ninjutsu who feel the need to go out and heal—and for your information, it was such a Hoshi who rescued Megumi and her brother those many years ago. He was a distant uncle of ours."

Although Sakura was interested to hear all of this, at the same time she was disheartened. History was interesting. Finding out that there was a Ninjutsu that the Hoshi found acceptable was even more interesting and exciting. But finding out that her family, even if she had never met any of them aside from Kirsche, had been forced to kill people hurt her heart. Kirsche's most recent history lesson explained more than anyone or anything else ever had about why everyone thought her so strange to want to be a ninja. Despite knowing this, though, and despite even her own (ingrained?) aversion to fighting, Sakura still desired to become a ninja.

Mentally reasoning with herself, Sakura pointed out that, unlike her ancestors, she was choosing to be a ninja of her own accord; so that she could protect those she cared about and not because someone had pressed her into it. And then, after a bit of thinking, she informed the side of her that was squeamish about one day, as a ninja, having to kill people, that, if she became as good as Kirsche at bending the '_Sie Ausde_' thingy…The Dimentions, Kirsche had said…then she wouldn't have to kill anyone…and if anyone did happen to get hurt, if she learned the one Ninjutsu she had heard of that the Hoshi approved of, then there would be no problem.

Kirsche's mask like smile warmed as she said, "I'm no mind reader, but I can guess what you might be thinking. I bet you would like me to teach you to heal and thus solve all the worlds' woes," Sakura couldn't stop her jaw from dropping with how spot-on the older girl was. "But I'm afraid," continued Kirsche, making Sakura's jaw snap closed, "things can't be quite that easy…" Kirsche's smile softened even more as she added, "…on either account." Sakura opened her mouth again—purposefully this time—but nothing came out; neither an argument nor a complaint could be produced.

Before she could find her voice, Kirsche continued while patting Sakura's shoulder comfortingly, "Time will teach you the reason for the latter's difficulty, but as to the first part I should probably explain. I brought you here to awaken your Eyes and to teach you about your Hoshi heritage. That was, and still is, my job—my purpose for being here. It would be unwise for me to take away from your time to learn what I came here to teach you, for that is something that you must learn. My teaching you to heal is unnecessary."

As Sakura shrank into herself, Kirsche gave her a hug. "I'm not trying to be harsh, Sakura, that's just the way things are. Although I am capable of teaching you, it is better for you if I don't. For if, like your mother's clan, you find yourself wishing to distance yourself from violence and the ninja way, then my having taught you such would only draw attention to yourself, your abilities, and how they could be turned to the purpose of war…" Kirsche said, pulling out of the hug to look at Sakura almost, if only for a moment, slyly, "and, if you decide that you would rather follow your father rather than your mother, and do decide to enter the path of the ninja…"

Suddenly all hint of 'sly' disappeared to be replace with 'serious', "…then it would be suspicious if, when having found a ninja Sensei, you suddenly displayed skills that you had no logical way of having learned. No logical way except one, rather. It is not me they would suspect, but your mom whom, they would deduce, was a Konoha spy. I will not sugar coat this for you, Sakura, because it is important that you remember it for the sake of your own happiness. If they came to such a conclusion, Haruka would be killed, and, depending on which way fate turned, so might Shin. You, however, would survive the spy-induced onslaught, and you would hate me as much as you would hate yourself for having taught you such a thing. And so therefore I won't."

A long silence followed this speech as Sakura first wallowed and then soaked in this terrible information. It didn't take long for Sakura to realize that Kirsche was right, but that didn't make the knowledge any easier to swallow when she had a vision of being a medic dancing in her head. It wasn't until Sakura realized what Kirsche hadn't said that she came out of her little ball of sadness. Kirsche had only said two things to be sad about, and neither would permanently block her from learning the Hoshi's one accepted Ninjutsu. The first was that Kirsche herself would not teach her, and the second was that she could not safely learn to heal in a manner that could not be 'logically' explained.

Both of these could be fixed in one rather simple way. In fact, it was so simple, that it took Sakura nearly an hour to figure it out, not that she realized that much time had gone by until later (and it would take exponentially more time for her to understand that she had found her answer due to clues Kirsche had dropped earlier, likely so that she could come to that very conclusion). What it came down to was this: once she returned to her time she only had to make it known that she wanted to learn to heal and that she had the ability to learn medical Ninjutsu and she should be able to find herself a Sensei.

Happy thoughts of first becoming a medic and then becoming a ninja danced through Sakura's head until her mind bumped into a realization that threw her out of her thoughts, though it didn't make her any less happy.

Turning her green eyes on Kirsche, she said, "Wait, does that mean you're okay with me becoming a ninja?" And then, when she didn't immediately respond, "But I thought that the Hoshi clan didn't think it was right to be a ninja. That's what everyone keeps telling me, even you." This was followed by more silence

Finally Kirsche answered slowly, "It's true, most don't…"

Sakura, in her happy state of mind, thought she had caught an unsaid 'but' at the end of that sentence and so she asked, "But…you're not most…are you?"

Kirsche just smiled.

* * *

There, yet another chapter for your reading pleasure. I hope you liked it even if it wasn't the most action-packed (it was info-and-hint-packed instead).

School will be starting up soon, and as always, I'll be busy, but I'll still try to find time to write. I don't drop stories, so even if there will be a long wait, you can be sure that another chapter will indeed come.

Now, let me remind people that I am happy to receive reviews and constructive criticism (especially if you catch a typo, just send me the sentence in which the typo resides and I will fix it), flamers, on the other hand, are not accepted. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: MaroonAngel of Darkness (I'm glad you liked it. I've been trying to add more Shin in), random k, general zargon (I'm glad that you understood the reason for things, even if you didn't like them), KannaDarkAngel (I am thinking of keeping all the different time-skips in this one story rather than braking them up), chidoroppu (thanks, you make me laugh. If only more people thought like you), and Sariko-chan723 for updating!


	26. So Lost

Disclaimer: Ask me not, I'll cheat you not

Chapter 26: So Lost

Two weeks after having first arrived in the New Suna, Sakura found herself settling in quite well—though she still got turned around easily in the same-but-different roads of Suna. On more than one occasion Sakura found herself walking out of a building towards a familiar landmark only to be grabbed by one of her companions and turned a different way, but this didn't bother her; she was happy enough that she had friends who could redirect her—all but Youko doing so without laughing at her slipup.

As the weeks flew by, Sakura also became more comfortable with constantly using her Eyes. After that first time, she made sure to never lose track of how much Chakra she had left and she learned how to gauge when she should head back to the inn to let her Chakra recuperate. Thanks to this her lessons with Kirsche had progressed to the point where Sakura could now briefly glimpse the past of the place where she currently was at before her Chakra fell as low as she was willing to let it go. She still didn't have much stamina, but Kirsche assured her that so long as she kept using her Eyes responsibly she would soon have enough Chakra left over at the end of the day to attempt glimpsing the past of places where she was not.

That wasn't what Sakura was most looking forward to, though. What she really wanted to learn was how to see the future—history you could learn about in books, but not the future—but Kirsche said it would be best to wait until she had better control of her Kekkei Genkai before she tried something so advanced. Despite these warnings, or perhaps because of them, Sakura had been reading ahead in the old leather book that Kirsche had given her, the one written in another language that Kirsche called the Ancient language. So far she hadn't found much—but then again, she still didn't have a very good grasp on the writing style of the Ancient language, which was nothing like the one she was used to. She was much better at understanding it when Kirsche spoke it than reading it or trying to speak it herself. She hoped that would change soon. She wanted to be able to See how her friends and family were doing.

That night she dreamt of Gaara playing pin the kunai on the assassin with his brother while Temari, with a huge smile on her face, practiced dancing in the background. Sakura woke up laughing because she knew how unlikely such a scene was.

* * *

Sakura was lost.

Looking around at the dark alleyway she had wound up in, Sakura couldn't help but wonder how she had ended up there. Earlier she and Youko had been taking a stroll outside while they waited for Karura to finish with her ballet lessons—something which, unlike her future daughter Temari, Karura loved almost as much as air itself. Sakura and Youko had been passing by the hospital on the way to the park when someone from inside opened a window and shouted out at Youko. Sakura wasn't quite sure what the man had been saying—there were a lot of medical terms thrown in, not to mention he was speaking a mile a minute—but she did get that he was telling Youko that, as an intern, she had to come in quickly to help with something, or see something or…well, the point was that Youko had to leave. Youko had made a face at him, but complied, telling Sakura as she gave the girl a quick, one-armed hug, that she would meet her in the park when she was done.

Somehow, this did not look like the park.

Picking up the pace, Sakura hurried through the alley, her eyes snapping to every shadow she passed. The pink haired child couldn't help imagining terrible monsters watching her as she nearly ran down the deserted path. When finally she found an exit from the tunnel-like alleyway, Sakura practically threw herself at it. The alleyway had opened upon a small cluster of buildings which instantly doused Sakura's hopes of finding someone who could lead her back to the park. Every single building was boarded up and there was not a soul in sight. Sakura hugged herself while fearfully glancing at all the shadowy places, trying not to cry.

She had to do something, but she had no idea what. All she knew was that she wanted out of this creepy place. And so she kept walking down the road before her without knowing where it headed, unaware that this same action was what had gotten her lost in the first place. Eventually she had to enter another alley, much to her horror—that, or she would have to turn back around. Sakura almost did the latter, but then, just as she was turning around, she caught sight of movement from the corner of her eye going past the alleyway ahead of her. Sakura's head snapped back to said alley just in time to ascertain that there was person in the distance who was just turning out of sight. Unable to forget about the stretching shadows and imagined monster eyes, Sakura hurried into the alley, trying to catch up with her one ray of hope as quickly as possible.

The little girl felt as if she had to run forever before she could turn the corner that the person before her had. When she finally got around the corner she found that two options lay before her. The first was to keep going straight, the second to turn another corner almost immediately to her left. Sakura didn't pause to think about it, she took the corner at a run, rationalizing with herself as she did so that if the person had gone straight she should have still been able to see them. The moment she almost ran into a trashcan and then a wall Sakura realized she was wrong. It was a dead end.

Something flickered in the corner of her eye. Sakura spun around quickly, her heart racing, hoping it had been just a cat and not one of the monsters she had been envisioning all along. But there was nothing behind her but the alleyway she had just left behind. That was almost more frightening than a monster.

THUMP!

A scream escaped Sakura as something heavy landed on the back of her neck. She would have jumped and turned around too, if the thing that was now halfway wrapped around her neck wasn't exerting enough pressure to keep her in place. A low sound came from behind her. The scream died in her throat the moment she comprehended that the 'thing' was a hand; and not only was it _just_ a hand, but it wasn't hurting her, just holding her in place and that the sound had been a voice—a human voice. Sakura relaxed a bit, thankful it wasn't a monster that had snuck up behind her. The dark aura that some might call killing intent went completely unnoticed.

"Why are you following me, kid?" The voice sounded angry, but Sakura was so relieved that she barely noticed, let alone cared. Sakura tilted her head backwards so that she could see the face of the person who had startled her—later she would wonder how he had gotten behind her in a dead end that she knew had been empty—but for now she simply glanced upwards. She had just finished saying that she was lost when she noticed that, upside down, the boy behind her looked a lot like Gaara. It was hard to be sure in the shadows of the alley, but the boy—or maybe teenager would be more appropriate—had hair that looked as red and as messy as Gaara's. His eyes reminded her even more of Gaara, though Sakura couldn't tell their exact color at the moment. There was something about the eyes that were glaring at her that made her want to turn around and hug the stranger, just like she would have Gaara if he had looked at her like that. Between her relief at having found someone who could help her and the similarity between said person and her best friend, the fact that the teenager was glaring at her barely registered.

The boy visibly twitched but released her with a slight shove. "I don't like people following me." The boy said coldly, and just as Sakura turned around to face him, he started to walk away.

Sakura did the only thing she thought logical at that moment: she rushed forward and grabbed the bottom hem of his shirt before he could disappear on her again. The boy swiveled towards her, one hand reached towards his hip as if he had something hidden there only to fall back to his side a moment later while his other hand grabbed her wrist. Tugging her hand off of his shirt tail, the teen glared at her with full force. If it had been any other stranger, Sakura would have been terrified and backed off, but, coming as it was from someone who reminded her of Gaara, Sakura only stiffened for a moment before she squared her shoulders and repeated the fact that she was lost, adding on that she needed help finding her way back. The red-head scowled, releasing her hand as he said icily, "I'm not your babysitter. Go find someone else to bother." He then turned to leave again, but Sakura once more reached out to stop him.

"But I'm lost and there's no one else to ask. Please…"

This time when she grabbed his shirt, though, the boy didn't turn back around. "Let go," he ordered sternly, "you are wasting my time," and when she didn't immediately obey, he add, "If you don't let go…I'll hurt you."

She'd heard Kankuro say the same thing many times before—usually to his sister—and it had never ended up with Kankuro actually hurting anyone… but Temari on the other hand… Not wanting to find out if the stranger was more like Kankuro, all bark and no bite, or Temari, who had both bark and bite, she let go of his shirt. However, the instant he took a step forward with the intent of leaving her behind, Sakura did the same, only with the intent of _not_ being left behind.

The boy tried walking faster, but Sakura kept on his heels, never letting him out of her sight. After a few minutes of this, she thought she heard the boy sigh and grumble something under his breath before he turned out of the alleyway and into another street full of boarded up houses. It wasn't until the boy moved towards one of the boarded up doors that Sakura went to grab his arm. "Stop…" she said more whisper than cry, "My mommy always says it's bad to go into people's houses without their permission."

"And how do you know that this isn't my house?" asked the boy gruffly as he shook off her hand without looking at her. As he continued towards the door it became clear he did not expect a response.

The first thing Sakura did when she heard this was blush, thinking that she had made a mistake, but then something about the situation hit her and she replied to the boy's back, her blush disappearing, "Because the house is boarded up." The boy glanced back, raising an eyebrow as if to ask what that mattered. "People don't board up houses they're living in." She explained, then froze as she realized what she'd just said. "Oh..." she gasped as the boy rolled his eyes and returned to the door, pulling one of the boards covering it out of his way with a loud snap. It was the sound that made her move.

Not caring that the boy would glare at her even harder, Sakura ran forward and grabbed his arm, stopping him from trying to pull off another board. "Stop it," she cried for real this time. When the boy tried to shake her off, she wouldn't let go, and when he growled what sounded like a threat she said loudly, "Even if no one lives there you shouldn't be doing this. This is bad! Mommy s—" Sakura almost fell when the boy pushed her away from him. His face was livid, but when he spoke he almost sounded as if he were calm.

"I don't care what your stupid mother says, just leave me alone."

Sakura's little eyebrows came together and her hands went to her hips. For some reason right now the boy was reminding her of Kankuro throwing a tantrum, and she didn't like it. "No. First off, this is wrong. Second, I'm sure your mommy would say the same—" The boy made a sound that sounded like a snort, but for some reason Sakura felt as if, rather than laughing, he was trying to keep himself from strangling her.

With a very fake smile, the red-head interrupted, "My mother never got to tell me much of anything before she was _killed_. Now get lost."

It was a few moments and another broken board before Sakura found her voice. "I already told you," the little girl began shakily, "I _am_ lost. And even if your mother is dead too, that doesn't mean your mommy or daddy wouldn't tell you that breaking into houses is wrong." The boy froze. For a moment Sakura thought that she had gotten through to him and that soon all would be well—either that or he was going to yell at her again, but then he sighed, pulled off one last board and kicked in the door.

As dust and splinters fell all around him, the boy said exasperatedly, "These houses are going to be torn down in a month or two and anything most people consider of value has already been taken. No one will care if I'm here or not." After saying this he stepped into the house, ignoring Sakura's protests as she first tried to stop him and then as she timidly followed him inside, clearly more afraid of being left behind than getting into trouble for entering an abandoned building.

In the end Sakura followed the Gaara-look-alike through five such houses. Sakura wasn't sure what the boy was looking for, because the few things he had taken out of the houses looked like trash to her. They were mostly things made out of metal like springs, hinges, and the occasional kitchen knife, though sometimes he would find something like the deflated rubber ball that he was currently examining and decide to take it too. This time he shook his head and dropped the flat ball with a look of disgust. As she stepped over it to catch up with the departing teen Sakura realized that there was a hole in the ball—no wonder it had been left behind.

The sun was bright. This was the first thing Sakura realized as she stepped out of the house; the second was that it had to be almost noon. The boy seemed to realize the same thing for what sounded like a cuss word fell from his mouth as he strode quickly towards a low wall. Sakura scurried after him, and when the boy swung himself easily over the wall, she had to clamber onto a garbage can first so that she could follow—skinning her knee on the way down—and then she had to run to catch up. When she stumbled over a large rock and almost fell she acted without thinking—she reached out and grabbed the boy's shirt. The moment she realized what she had done Sakura flinched, expecting the boy to get angry at her again, but all he did was brush her hand off of his shirt once she had regained her balance and then turned down another alleyway. Not only did he do all this without looking at her once, but he did so without showing any sign that her having pulled his shirt tight across his neck with the momentum of her fall had hurt him at all.

Sakura was still stuttering apologies as they exited the alleyway, but they came to an abrupt halt when she saw that she was now in the shadow of a big, semi-familiar building. A large smile captured her face. "Hey, hey," she called, tugging on the boy's hand and pointing down the road without worrying about the glare he sent her at her touch, "isn't the park just over that way? The one near the hospital?"

The boy 'hmphed' and slipped his hand out of hers. Sakura thought that this was all the answer she was going to get out of him, but then to her surprise he added very bluntly, "No." Sakura felt her face fall—and here she had thought she knew where she was. The boy wasn't finished though. "That way is the inn, the one made by the woodworkers. The park is due north of here." That last part meant nothing to the little girl, but the way he jerked his head did.

Sakura's face lit back up. "Thank you…" but the boy had already turned around and was walking away. The pink haired child might have run after him, just to make sure she thanked him properly for getting her un-lost, but just then she heard a familiar voice call out her nickname. It was Karura. Sakura just had time to realize this when she was swept up in a hug as Karura explained how worried she had been when she had arrived at the park only to find that neither Sakura nor Youko was there. Sakura tried to calm down the older girl by telling her where Youko was, but found that instead of calm, the news of Youko's departure seem to make her angry.

"Geez," Karura muttered, then put her hands on her hips, "What was that girl thinking? She knows you can't be trusted not to get lost on your own. I swear, as soon as I find her I'll give her a piece of my mind." And she did, though she had to wait until it was nearly dinnertime for the other girl to appear. By that time both of the boys had joined them at the park and each had something to add when they found out that Sakura had been left alone to get lost. Yashamaru was the harshest of all.

* * *

"…you know she still gets lost," Yashamaru was saying in a stern tone while facing down a pouting Youko. He had been chiding her for ten minutes already. "So why would you leave a nine-year-old alone in a foreign city?! Did you leave your brain at—"

"But I'm not nine." The words were out before Sakura even realized she had spoken, and by the time she did she wished she hadn't, because now everyone was looking at her expectantly. It was at about this point that she realized that she couldn't tell them that she was only five…and she had no clue how old her body was supposed to be…but he had thought she was nine…but she had just said she wasn't nine…what was she to do? The only thing she could.

Eyes gravitating towards the ground, Sakura scuffed her foot in the dirt and muttered, "I'm…uh…I-I'm…eight…I think…" The last part was more of a whisper to herself than anyone else—but everyone heard it.

"You think?" Asked Yashamaru incredulously…apparently he was in a bad mood today. "Why do you _think_ you are eight? Either you are, or you are not." Sakura, at a loss for words, could only stare harder at the ground, wishing it would swallow her whole.

Shin lightly punched the older boy's shoulder. "Stop it, you are scaring her. Besides, she has been traveling around for a while—she has probably just lost track of what day it is."

"He's right," added Karura, poking her brother in the ribs, "and there is an easy enough way to find her exact age. When were you born, Kura?"

Sakura's mind was blank. From the way she said it Sakura knew what the older girl was asking for was what year she was born in…but she hadn't been born yet! Unable to think up a believable lie—she didn't even know what year it was—she told the truth. "March 28th."

What she didn't expect was for her answer to be met with a groan from everyone. Yashamaru even hit his head with his palm. As his hand slid down his face, the sandy-haired boy intoned, "Kura…the 28th was yesterday."

At this Sakura's head started spinning. She knew she hadn't left home to come to Suna until after her birthday and she hadn't arrived here in this New Suna until many months later. Until now she had been thinking that this whole time travel thing occurred by jumping years into the past…years to the day…apparently though, that was not the case. Maybe it was because it didn't get cold in Suna like it would back in her old home, but Sakura found it hard to believe that it was just the beginning of spring.

Sakura was so lost in her confused thoughts that she didn't realize she had said anything aloud until Youko said jubilantly, "Wow, if you left home soon after your birthday that means you've been on the road for nearly a year. No wonder you lost track of time." She chuckled, then added, "Guess that means sour-puss over here was right after all, you _are_ nine…if just barely."

"I'm not a sour-puss," was Yashamaru's clipped response, to which Youko laughed. The boy crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the bubbly girl for all the good it did him.

Youko ignored the glare, swinging an arm around his shoulders. "Sure you're not," she intoned sweetly through a large grin that was anything but sweet, "and Karu-Chi isn't the sweetest girl in the world."

"That's very nice of you… I think…" Karura interrupted, taking Youko's arm off of her brother before he could retaliate, "…but let him be for today. He just found out his Sensei won't let his squad take the Chunin exams this year." Youko paled, then hugged the boy again with one arm, this time trying to cheer him up.

"Poor Yashamaru! I know how much you've been looking forward to it. I'm so sorry."

Sakura watched all this slightly confused. "Um…" she asked hesitantly, then gulped when all eyes jumped to her—including the even-more-annoyed-than-before Yashamaru's—but she knew these four too well to stay tongue-tied for long. "…Um…the Chunin exam? I was just wondering…" Sakura trailed off, not quite sure what to say. She didn't know what the Chunin exam was or why it Yashamaru looked so sad not to be able to take it, but it wasn't just that…somehow it sounded familiar, and yet…

Youko opened her mouth as if to answer the question Sakura hadn't finished, but Shin covered it, glancing at Yashamaru and his darkening mood as he did so. Karura stepped in once more to change the subject, "Hey, Kura, I know your birthday's passed already, but how about tomorrow we do something fun to celebrate?" Sakura blinked dumbly at the older girl, not understanding at first the change in the conversation. By the time she did, Youko had broken free of her brother and was clapping her hands joyfully while almost simultaneously elbowing said brother in revenge.

"That's a wonderful idea!"

Sakura blushed and swung her arms wildly, trying to get across that they really didn't need to (it wasn't really her birthday after all—not to mention birthday parties had this horrible habit of making the birthday girl the center of attention—something Sakura doubted she would ever be comfortable with), but Youko notice her attempt just about as much as she noticed Yashamaru's twitching eyebrow; which is to say, not at all.

* * *

Well, I hope people liked this; it took a lot of effort to make time in my busy schedule to write, but I tried. A lot has been going on lately, but this story is still alive.

I bet some of you are wondering who the Gaara-look-alike was, but I'm not going to say. You'll get plenty of chances to guess on your own since he will be reappearing. All I will say is that he is not an original character but rather is seen in the Canon.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to a map, so that they don't end up lost like Sakura was. Flamers will get no such help. Now onto the depressingly short _pretty list_!

Thanks to: KannaDarkAngel (I'm glad to hear that), Sariko-chan723, random-k, & BriEva (The answer to your question is yes, there is more than what has been said, but you'll have to wait to find out what) for reviewing!


	27. You Don't Always Get What You Want

Disclaimer: I'm just a poor college student…If I owned, do you think that would be a good descriptor of me? No? I didn't think so either.

Chapter 27: You Don't Always Get What You Want

That night the twins parted with Sakura, telling her that tomorrow they had things to do in the morning, but that, come evening, she would have a birthday party. Sakura moped all the way up the wooden stairs to her room. Half of her unhappiness was the fact that this birthday party meant that she would be forced to be sociable, very possibly with strangers. The other half was self-loathing. She had lied and now everyone wanted to celebrate that lie. It was all her fault and she hated herself for it.

When she opened her door she found Kirsche sitting on the edge of her bed, reading a book. Sakura slumped into the room, for once unable to think enthusiastically about lessons. All she wanted was to lie down and go to bed—and to sleep through all of tomorrow—or better yet, wake up and find out the whole birthday lie had been a dream. Her wishful thinking was shattered when Kirsche snapped her book closed and grinned at Sakura.

"So, I hear there is to be a birthday party for you tomorrow." Sakura could only nod glumly, her eyes glued to the floor. "Now, what's this?" Sakura felt Kirsche's hand on her chin, lifting up her face until they were blue eyes to green. "Do you want to talk to me about it?" Sakura's first reaction was to shake her head no, but then she hesitated and minutely nodded. Kirsche's smile was gentile as she lifted Sakura up beside her on the bed and wrapped an arm around the girl comfortingly. "Then go ahead. Tell me about your day, about your worries. Maybe I'll be able to help."

Sakura shook her head. "You can't help." She whispered, "I lied, and now I'm paying for it." For a moment Sakura wondered if Kirsche would get angry at her, tell her that she shouldn't lie, or ask what she had lied about—but Kirsche did none of these things that any other adult would have. Instead she just nodded and looked at Sakura as if she expected both everything and nothing at all to come spilling out of her lips. Sakura shivered as she realized she would feel better if Kirsche would have just gotten angry at her instead of looking at her so understandingly. It made her feel even worse.

"You don't understand," Sakura told those understanding eyes, her little hands fisted in her lap as she tried desperately to get her feelings across to her older counterpart, "I lied. I told them I was eight, then they decided I was nine, and now they are throwing me a party because they think my birthday was yesterday, but it wasn't my birthday and I'm not eight or nine, or anything they think I am because I'm—I'm—" Sakura had to stop to gasp for breath as tears stung her eyes. "I'm a liar…and I wish I could just tell them the truth!"

"You _could_ tell them the truth," intoned the older girl seriously, as if they were talking about a stolen button rather than time travel and age confusion. "No one could stop you from telling the truth if you truly wanted to."

"But I can't!" Sakura gasped, her face going white at the thought. "They wouldn't believe me, and then they'd call me a liar and they wouldn't be my friends anymore and I'd be all alone again and—" Kirsche was shaking her head. "It's true!"

Kirsche's gentle smile didn't falter in the least as she said, "I didn't say it wasn't, but Sakura…if you didn't want to lie, then why did you?" Sakura wanted to shout that she had just told her why, but the look on Kirsche's face made her stop. As always, the young woman was smiling, but her smile was no longer just gentle, it was also serious and expectant and…something else Sakura couldn't name. "As I said," continued Kirsche, "you _could_ have told the truth. You _could_ have told everyone that you were five and that you only look older because of the Scroll of the Circle. You could have, but you didn't. Why?"

The most obvious answer would have been that no one would have believed her, but as Sakura stared up at the older girl, she realized that wasn't the only reason why she would never have told the truth. "Because…" the child began slowly, "I can't. I don't want them to laugh at me, or call me a liar…but…If I told them the truth I wouldn't want them to believe me either…because that would change the future."

Krsche raised one eyebrow, "Sakura, what is the second law of time?"

The pink haired child blinked in confusion at the change in subject, but soon gave an automatic response, "The past cannot be changed…" Then, as she realized why she might have been asked such a question she added, "but Kirsche, the third law is that the future is not set, so…I need to be careful not to do anything …anything…" Sakura wasn't quite sure how to say what she wanted to say, but she did know that she was presently in the past and that her future depended on everything she did now. Kirsche's smile shifted, as if this was a test and she had just given a trick question. Suddenly Sakura knew that she had thought wrong.

Sakura glared up at the smiling young woman and crossed her arms over her chest, "Even if this is the past, how could telling someone who I really am not change the future?! Then they'd already know who I am, and no one knew who I was before the met me!" Kirsche's smile shifted once again; this time she looked proud. Sakura wanted to scream with frustration—she didn't want proud looks, she wanted answers. Thankfully, Kirsche deigned to give her some. Sakura settled down to listen to what would be a long, informative discussion.

* * *

The moon was high when Sakura interrupted Kirsche as soon as what the older girl had just said penetrated her tired mind. "Wait," she shot straight up from her tired slump, "you mean no one will remember me?! I'll just go back home and everyone here will just forget me."

Kirsche shook her head, "Not quite like that. It's…difficult to explain…but the Scroll of the Circle affects everyone you encounter. As far as I can tell, the Scroll was designed so that it leaves a sort of residue behind with those who you've met. The more time you spend with someone and the more you get to know one another, the more that gets left behind in their mind. Then, when you leave, the Scroll takes back everything it had left behind, and, if needed, smooths over any holes that might be left by the residue—effectively removing _you_ from the past. But this doesn't mean they'll outright forget you. They'll simply have a tampered memory about someone who was like you. The scroll was designed so that…certain people could reclaim their memories in the present once the person who used the Scroll was already in the past…but most people will only remember you as someone who was once in their life; someone like you, but who could never be mistaken for you."

As if reading Sakura's mind and knowing she needed a better explanation, Kirsche added, "How many people do you know of who would look at a five-year-old and would bother contemplating that they were the same nine-year-old girl they had met a long time ago, long before that five-year-old was born? Not many, right? After all, 'everyone knows that time travel is impossible'." This last bit Kirsche said sarcastically, but, even as tired as she was, Sakura knew the older girl was right. If she hadn't lived through it, she might not have believed in time travel herself.

"Though," Kirsche suddenly added, making Sakura jump, "through my travels I do have to admit that I've found a few people who…though they don't regain their memory, they are able to…" For a while Sakura thought that perhaps Kirsche had forgotten what she was going to say, but then Kirsche closed her eyes and continued as she leaned her head back. "I suppose you could say I've encountered a few people astute enough to recognize suspicious holes in their memory who were able to…fill in the pieces…but it's rare, and even then it's unlikely that they would suspect time travel—genjutsu would be a much more believable extrapolation—sorry, explanation—than something that people think to be impossible."

Sakura felt as if the world was spinning. She wasn't sure she understood everything, but she did get that, despite being in the past, she couldn't change the future, because the future was her present and the present her past, and time was a continuous circle and…Sakura really wanted the world to quit spinning long enough for her to be able to think. "So…" Sakura began carefully, trying to fight a yawn and failing, "are you saying that I can't change the future while I'm here?" Kirsche nodded. "And I can tell the truth if I want to…but that sometimes I shouldn't because…someone might remember?"

"You've got the idea of it. Now, it's way past your bedtime. Let's get you ready for bed."

"But," Sakura tried to argue as a nightgown was slipped over her head, "what about lessons?"

Kirsche's smile was warm and blurry. Sakura rubbed her tired eyes as the older girl brushed her hair and led her to bed, "You have enough to think about already. Under the covers you go." Sakura meant to argue again—she would never be able to See the future at this rate—but by the time her head hit her pillow, she was already fast asleep.

* * *

That night Sakura had many strange dreams, including ones where Kankuro was forced to wear a tutu and go to ballet class with Karura (and had actually done really well), ones where Megumi argued with and then gave a piece of paper to the Gaara-look-alike Sakura had met earlier, and ones where people had turned their backs on her, calling her anything from liar to billboard brow. It was in one such dream that Sakura tried to run forward, reaching out for whoever's back it was she was looking at—only then, she was falling—

Sakura jerked awake as one of her feet dangled off the side of the bed, her heart pounding. The room was barely lit by the rising sun, but it was enough that Sakura had to cover her eyes. The next time she opened them, the sun had proved that it could get a whole lot brighter. It wasn't until she stumbled down the stairs, fully dressed and looking for some food, that Sakura realized how late she had slept.

Megumi swung into view as if she had somehow magically known that Sakura had entered the otherwise empty main hall. "Good morning, little Kura," Youko's nickname for Sakura had, just as Karura had warned, become so engraved in peoples mind that even the steadfast Megumi gave up on calling her by her real name. "Kirsche said you might be up late. I saved you some breakfast. Here, come sit down and I'll get it for you." In the blink of an eye Megumi was gone, back into the kitchen. Sakura had barely managed to sit as she had been told when Megumi swept back into the room carrying a tray filled with more food than Sakura could ever manage to eat in one sitting.

"Here you go, now you eat up. Don't look at me like that; you're way too young to be on a diet. Oh, by the way, what kind of sweets do you like?"

Sakura didn't have to stop to think for that one as images automatically popped into her head. "Anko dumplings…oh, and anmitsu…oh, and syrup, I like syrup."

"Ho-ho, I see you have a bit of a sweet-tooth, nothing wrong with that, though; in moderation of course." Megumi was already hallway back to the kitchen when Sakura thought to ask her where the twins were.

"Oh, those two? Youko already went to the hospital for her shift—she said she'd already told you that, but you never know with that girl. Shin's with my brother in the workshop—I think they're doing one of those decorative side tables today. The Higa's ordered a whole set for their son's upcoming marriage to one of the Akai girls—I never was any good at the delicate work so it's up to those two to get it done in time. And dear, why do you look so pale? Maybe it's a good thing those two will be out most of the day. You should just go back upstairs and rest once you're done with your meal, okay? I'd hate for you to collapse again. Leave your plate there when you're done." And with that Megumi disappeared into the kitchen once more.

If Sakura was pale, she knew it was because she recognized both of the names Megumi had just mentioned and not because of her supposedly weak constitution. Rei and Hisako's last name was Higa, and Akai…well, Akai had tried to kill her…though now that she thought about it, she didn't even know if Akai was his first or last name. Sakura shook her head, trying to dispel her thoughts—it wasn't like she was going to run into Akai any time soon, not if she could help it. She liked living, thank you very much.

Ignoring Megumi's advice, Sakura returned to her room only long enough to grab everything she needed to go exploring, including the money Kirsche had given her and a hair tie since she could hear the wind picking up outside her window. Sakura then proceeded to rush out of the inn before Megumi noticed what she was up to.

Sakura ran happily through the streets, her eye's blue and blazing as she took in the sights. Her first stop was the bookstore. The other day when they had passed by she thought she had seen a book about finding your ninja way—or something like that—in the storefront, and another about basic first aid, but she hadn't gotten to go in since she was with both sets of twins at the time and Yashamaru was still making it clear to her that he didn't think she was cut out for the life of a ninja. She'd show him.

A half hour, a lot of arguing with adults who thought they knew better than her, and one thick book later Sakura skipped down the road, a little irritated but mostly happily. She made her way to a park that looked familiar—it wasn't her and Gaara's park, but she didn't mind, it was peaceful, with only a few little kids playing under their mother's supervision. Finding a nice shady tree with a bench beneath it to sit on, Sakura was about to crack open her new book when a shadow fell over her. Looking up, Sakura found a face right in front of her own…only this one was upside down.

"Hello," greeted the little girl hanging from the tree by her knees, "you have pretty hair." A large grin split the girls face, revealing a missing tooth. "I wish I had pretty pink hair instead of this!" she said, pointing to her brown pigtails. The next thing Sakura knew a hand was thrust in her face as the upside down girl said gaily, "Nice to meet you, my name's Keiko and I'm eight and a half!" Throughout all of this, Sakura could only blink in surprise. When the hand remained in her face, she tentatively grasped it, her own face turning pink as she did so. What she got was a handshake like an earthquake as she stuttered through an introduction of her own.

* * *

What followed was a boat load of questions, half of which Sakura never got the chance to answer, and a game of tag that somehow ended with them near the tall building where she had parted with the Gaara-look-alike the other day (or at least she thought it was the same building). When they stopped in the shade of the tall structure to catch their breath, Sakura finally managed to dig up the courage to ask Keiko what she had been doing in the tree earlier.

"I was hiding from my aunts of course," answered the girl brazenly, as if that were the most logical and obvious of reasons. "They wanted to put me in a dress or something equally terrible. They promised me many pins and pokes and frills." Keiko stuck out her tongue and made a face, then added while tugging at her pant leg, "I'd never be able to do anything fun in one of those silly things, and getting poked _hurts_." Sakura was trying to find the pluck to tell Keiko that not all dresses were bad when a hand landed on both Sakura's and Keiko's shoulder. A young man's voice spoke in a low tone that, though not harsh, made Sakura jump in fright. He said but one word, 'Keiko', and said girl shrieked.

Sakura stood frozen as Keiko tried to escape from the stranger's grasp, calling him all sorts of unflattering names as the young man called out to someone behind him, "I found your niece, Suzume, now you can stop worrying yourself to death."

"Oh, thank goodness," cried a woman that Sakura distantly noted looked a lot like Keiko as she rushed past her and the young man to throw herself on Keiko. At first the aunt's voice was muffled in Keiko's shoulder, but soon Sakura heard what she was saying. "…I looked up and you were gone! Do you know how much that frightened me? Don't ever do this again!"

Any other time, Sakura might have watched the drama going on between aunt and niece, but not this time. Instead, all of Sakura's attention was glued on the young man who was now standing near her, one hand still on her shoulder. His dark eyes were staring into hers, an annoyed grimace on his face that Sakura barely noticed. Why? Because once again she was looking at a Gaara-look-alike, only this one looked older than the one she had met last time. Of course, Sakura amended as she studied the young man, he didn't look exactly like Gaara—his eyes and hair were too dark and his nose wasn't quite the same…but he, the other look-alike and Gaara could have been brothers. It was as she thought this that she realized for the first time that, this being the past, one or both of them might really be Gaara's relative.

Sakura was shaken out of her thoughts when the brown-haired aunt—a young woman, Sakura realized, not as old as her scolding had made her sound—broke Sakura's staring contest with the look-alike number two. Dragging Keiko behind her, the aunt came up to the stranger and practically gushed, "Thank you so much, Katsu! I don't know what I'd ever do without you. You're so reliable!" Sakura had to hide her smile when she saw Keiko make a gagging face behind the woman's back. "No wonder they say you might be the next—"

"You're welcome," the second Gaara-look-alike—Katsu—interrupted stiffly, as if he too wanted to gag but was too polite to do so. "It would be best worth your time to hurry. You said the seamstress was going to leave in an hour."

"Oh, gosh, you're right! Well, thank you again, Katsu, I hope to see you again soon. Come on, Keiko, you are going to be in so much trouble when your parents find out what you did today."

Sakura returned the wave that Keiko sent her (clearly ignoring her aunt's chiding), but soon had to look away when the hand on her shoulder tightened. Returning her eyes to the look-alike named Katsu, Sakura found that he was frowning—and she thought it made him look even older than his normal stern expression did. "You are the fortuneteller's sister, aren't you?" he asked gravely. Sakura could only nod. "I thought so, you have the same shifty eyes. You should head back to her now." He released her shoulder with a gentle shove in the right direction, and then added, "In the future do not encourage Keiko, or any other Suna child for that matter, to misbehave. The consequences could be harsh." And with that ominous statement he left, without so much as a goodbye.

Sakura waited until she was sure he wouldn't turn back around to stick her tongue out at his retreating back. He might have looked like Gaara, but even the other look-alike had a better attitude than this Katsu-person did. She hoped she would never run into him again. Turning around, Sakura stalked off in the opposite direction as Katsu had gone, wanting to get as far away from the unpleasant guy as she possibly could.

And this was how she ended up lost amongst the abandoned houses once more. This time, though, as soon as she realized she was lost she stopped, found the nearest thing she could climb on and scurried up onto a rooftop. When even this vantage point didn't help her in finding either a way back or someone to ask, Sakura plopped down on the roof, pulled out her new book, and promptly tried to muck her way through "Herbs: Healers and Killers", a book which the bookseller had said would be too much for a little kid like her…and just like with Yashamaru and his ideas about her unfitness for a career as a ninja, she would prove the bookseller wrong.

An hour, three mini-tantrums, and a different rooftop later, Sakura finally made it to the second chapter of the book. Staring at the title of the chapter, Sakura tried to sound it out, "Car-dee-o glii—glee—glick—"

"Glycoside,"

Sakura jumped and nearly tumbled off the edge of the roof she was sitting on—she hadn't even heard anyone approach. A hand grabbing her by her shirt collar stopped her fall. Her preferred Gaara-look-alike set her back on the roof less than gently, and then picked up the book she had dropped. As he stared down at the cover, Sakura distantly noted that his hair was slightly darker than Gaara's, but much closer than the second look-alike's had been—his eyes, a mahogany, were nothing like Gaara's at all; at least not as far as color went.

"Why are you reading something clearly beyond your capability?"

Sakura's first instinct was to cross her arms and glare—she had proceeded to do the first when she realized that the teen was looking at her with mild curiosity rather than the blatantly condescending look the bookseller and a few other people had sent her way earlier. Rather than glare, Sakura decided to answer truthfully, though her arms remained crossed defensively, "Because the books I wanted were gone and the lady told me I would never be able to read it even if I tried." To her surprise, the boy nodded, as if that were a very practical answer.

"Why haven't you asked me what I'm doing out here?" Sakura asked tentatively, fearing that the teen might snap at her—or worse: go back to his silence of the day before. He did neither.

"It would be a waste of time to ask why you're sitting on a roof in the middle of nowhere when I already know the answer." He thrust the book back into her arms, then turned and hopped off the building. Sakura scrabbled to follow after. He shot her a glare, as if to tell her not to follow. She did anyhow. After a few minutes of walking in silence the red-head stated bluntly without turning around to look at her, "I am _not_ heading back into town."

"I know," Sakura chirped as she followed a few steps behind him, "but you will eventually. Besides, yesterday was fun," once she had gotten over her fear of trespassing, of course, "so maybe I can help you today. What are you looking for anyways?" The teen didn't bother to respond as he continued on to another abandoned house. He didn't try to lose her, though, either.

At first the older boy ignored her as he shuffled from building to building, taking every hinge he could find plus anything else his unfathomable mind thought was useful. Sakura might not have understood the reason he needed these things, but she still wanted to help. While the Gaara-look-alike-number-one was busy with taking down a door, Sakura decided to try to get a hinge off a cupboard that was already loose. The problem was, unlike the red-head, she had no tools. And so Sakura used the only thing she had available to her: her own strength. Grasping the cupboard handle tightly, Sakura pulled once, and when that only shook the cupboard door, she tried again, this time throwing all her weight into it. Sakura got what she wanted, but not at all the way she had wanted it as she and her cupboard door slammed into a large pile of rubble due to her inertia.

As the pile of rubble shifted under her and a piece of plaster fell from the wall to strike her shoulder, Sakura could only groan. A part of it was the bruises she knew she had just picked up, but the other part of it was how dirty she knew she must now be—and how if Megumi caught her looking all bruised and dirty like this she would doubtlessly lock her in her room saying something about how someone sickly like her (she wasn't even sick at all!) shouldn't do anything dangerous. Rolling her eyes at the thought, Sakura struggled to right herself, nearly falling a second time when the rock or dirt or whatever it was in the pile of rubble gave way. Slipping and sliding, Sakura's arms pin-wheeled until she was certain she wouldn't fall, and then she scrambled to get onto solid ground. Once there, she realized she had left the cupboard door in the middle of the pile.

Glaring at the cupboard door, Sakura debated about going for it and facing the tumbley-pile-of-doom again. A glance behind her showed that the red-head had ignored her tumble entirely and was now nearly finished with the door he had been working on. For some reason this bothered Sakura, and so when she turned back to the cupboard door, one eyebrow twitching, she knew what she was going to do. Getting down on her hands and knees, Sakura maneuvered herself back up the treacherous slope, careful to never look away from where she was putting her extremities. To her surprise, she reached the cupboard door rather easily, but something else had reached it first. Sakura stared at the little red creature with the curled black tail and two little black pincers. The little creature stared back from its perch on the cupboard handle a foot away from her face.

Sakura's first thought was that it had too many legs; her second was how it was a very pretty red, almost like Gaara's hair. Sakura shook her head, smiling—would everything remind her of Gaara?—and then she tried to shoo the little critter away. The creature—the likes of which Sakura had never seen before—only swayed from side to side, its tail slightly uncurling. It took one step forward, and then wouldn't budge anymore. Sakura 'hmphed' with annoyance; she didn't want to hurt the thing when she took its base out from under it, but she wasn't willing to leave behind the cupboard she had worked so hard for, either—she had to prove to the Gaara-look-alike-number-one that she could help, after all. Sakura reached out to take hold of the cupboard's corner farthest from the obstinate animal, hoping to slide it off gently without having to touch it.

That was when the scorpion struck out.

* * *

I know, terrible cliffhanger, but hey, at least it's a long chapter. I do wonder who people think Gaara-look-alike-number-one is (and number-two) and what you personally think about them.

As always, I'm sorry for the long wait, but also as always, there's not much I can do about it thanks to life. I probably won't have time to update again until December or January, but worry not, I _will_ update. Having had so many reviews this time really helped me find my muse—even if it was still hard to find the free time to write it all down.

Many thanks to BriEva for her lovely drawings of Sakura Kaneko. If you are interested in seeing them, check out the links near the bottom of my profile.

As to those who have mentioned ages: I have tried to keep ages as close to the real storyline as possible, but sometimes it's hard to find exact information on ages, and so, if I have messed something up, please just go with it and think of it as creative license. You are free to tell me what you think the real ages should be…but I did the best with what I had to guestimate their ages and so their ages (as approximated by Sakura in this story) are not likely to be changing unless it is due to Sakura having 'miss-approximated' their ages.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to some late Halloween candy—flamers can have the wrappers. Now, onto the long _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Mango Marbles (it will probably be a while yet), BriEva (some of your questions should be answered now), ksv12 (thanks, I fixed the north thing), KannaMensyan (I don't know, you tell me), general zargon (thanks for your suggestion), Genuinely-Unique (I'm so glad you are trying to reason things out), Lamby, Paraguay (well, she certainly gets lost easily, if that's what you meant), Guest, chidoroppu (it's good to hear from you again, and thanks), Random k (I _do_ lover surprises, but I also do try to make some things 'guessable'), moodymel, & Sal for reviewing!


	28. Unheralded Perils

Disclaimer: If I owned, I don't think the future would be so daunting right about now.

Chapter 28: Unheralded Perils

That was when the scorpion struck out.

Before Sakura understood what was going on, she felt a brush of air and then something tap her hand. Pin-prick blue eyes blinked three times before she realized why the little strange critter's curled black tail was now resting on her hand while the rest of it was pinned down to the cupboard by a metal star. Sakura swiveled around to glare at the red-head behind her.

"Why did you kill it?" Sakura demanded of the boy, "Even if it had too many legs, you didn't need to kill it!" The Gaara-look-alike finished unscrewing the last hinge from the door, not even bothering to look at her. "It wasn't hurting anyone." Sakura declared, crossing her arms over her chest as she slithered off the debris pile and stomped towards the teen. She stopped abruptly when mahogany eyes snapped up to meet hers.

One red eyebrow rose as he set down the door. "What do you think that was?" His voice was bland, as if he really didn't care what her answer was, but when she didn't answer right away, he added, "I'm waiting…and I don't _like_ to be kept waiting." Somehow, his voice remained bland even though his words suggested that he was annoyed.

Sakura looked back over her shoulder at the corpse, "…a big bug?" she asked. As Sakura watched, another tiny pincher poked out from the pile of rubble and soon was scuttling towards the shuriken.

Although Sakura wasn't certain, she thought she heard the boy sigh. "It's more closely related to spiders than bugs. It is a scorpion."

Sakura turned back around to look at the red-head, her head tilting to the side questioningly, "So what if it's called a scorpion? You still didn't need to kill it. I could have gotten it to go away on my own." This time she knew she heard the older boy 'hmph'. "It's true! I was trying to—"

Sakura froze as the Gaara-look-alike's eyes flashed in a way that reminded her all too much of her best friend when his sand started to shift. His voice—this time with a hint of emotion to it—cut her off, "To get yourself killed." When it was clear that Sakura didn't understand why he would say such a thing and was about to argue, his hand snapped out as he pointed behind her. A glance back showed that now not only a second, but also a third scorpion had popped to the surface of the debris pile. One of the scorpions seemed to be poking the dead one with its pincher while the other one came up behind it. And then its tail whipped out, striking the curious scorpion. Before Sakura understood why, one scorpion lay still while the other waved its pincers in the air, as if in a victory dance.

Sakura shivered. To think that, mere moments before, she had been on top of that pile where two scorpions now lay dead. "But wait," Sakura wondered aloud, "how are we supposed to get those hinges now?"

"Just leave them." Sakura turned around, only to find that the red-head was bent over the matching door that was still attached to the cupboard, already at work removing it.

But she didn't want to 'just leave them', she decided. She had worked hard to remove that cupboard door—and she wanted to prove that she could be of help. And so Sakura went in search of something long and thin to try to reach her prize with. What she found was a yardstick with one end broken off and a thin rusted pipe that looked like it might have belonged to the kitchen sink at some point.

Sakura proceeded to the ruble pile where the dancing scorpion still stood and tried to dig the broken end of the yardstick under the wooden door while gently trying to push the scorpion off with the metal pipe. Her plan was to peacefully move the little scorpion off her prize and then sandwich the board between the stick and the rod. All she succeeded in doing was breaking off more of the stick and making the scorpion lash out at the pipe. Sakura flinched as the pipe vibrated—even knowing the scorpion couldn't reach her didn't stop her from being afraid, it just made her better able to face her fear head on—well, that, and the thought of this older version of Gaara praising her, or thanking her, or acknowledging in some way that she had repaid him for some of his kindness to her the last time she was lost.

And so Sakura tried again, despite her fear, to reach out to the hinge bearing prize before her. This time, just as the scorpion scuttled off the edge of the cupboard door with help from her metal pipe, the yardstick broke in half. Sakura stared at the remains in her hand, almost debating with herself about whether she should get just a little closer to the pile to try one final time. The problem was, as she looked that the now much shorter stick, she realized that she would have to be _on_ the pile to reach. A second passed, and then the scorpion disappeared under the edge of the cupboard. And it was for this reason that debate wasn't necessary—now that the scorpion was gone, she could just pick up the cupboard door and move away from the scorpion's home quickly—it didn't sound too hard…now that the scorpion wasn't watching her. Surely she would be safe.

Sakura only managed to take two steps towards the rubble when something thin, blue-tinged and faintly glowing swiped past her face, striking the cupboard door. Before Sakura could comprehend what was happening or that she had dropped what was left of the yardstick, the small wooden door was sailing through the air, dragged by the glowing string, right into the hand of the boy who could have been Gaara's older brother. Sakura's mouth gaped open, and it wasn't until the older boy had already removed one of the two hinges that she found her voice. "How did you do that?" Sakura asked, half incredulously, half overly-excited. The red head didn't bother even acting like he'd heard, though she knew he must have.

Bouncing towards the red-head, Sakura couldn't stop herself from spouting out more questions, even though she knew the teen would likely keep ignoring her. "That was so cool! What did you do? How did you get the door to come to you? What was that weird glowy-blue-stringy-thingy? What—?" Sakura stopped speaking, not because she had run out of questions, but because two mahogany eyes were suddenly staring her down intently. Sakura would have understood if he had been glaring at her—this Gaara-look-alike did it often enough that it had ceased to bother her too much—she could have even understood if he had been annoyed or told her to be quiet; instead, though, he looked almost…surprised.

Sakura blinked. The boy blinked. This happened a second time, and then a third. After the fourth blink the red-head turned back to the hinges at hand, but just as Sakura was about to blink for the fifth time, he drawled out: "You saw…?"

Sakura tilted her head, momentarily wondering why the way he had said it sounded as if he were asking what she had seen, when she knew that he knew what she had seen. So instead, putting the hand not holding the metal pipe on her hip, she answered with a slight annoyance in her voice, "Of course I saw it. It flew right past my face! And you could have hit me with the cupboard on the way back." The red-head didn't respond, but something in his posture made the annoyance she had felt slip away, though she couldn't say why. After minutes without getting a response, Sakura stepped closer to the boy, asking carefully, "Was I not supposed to see?"

The teen set down the now hingeless cupboard door and stood up silently. First he looked into her eyes, and then he glanced at the pipe she had forgotten was still in her hand. He looked at it as if measuring it against something, then nodded. When he finally held out his hand towards her, Sakura handed him the pipe, hoping that he would acknowledge her question if she did so. But all the boy did was heft the rod as if testing its weight, tapped it with his finger, listened to the sound it produced, then clicked his tongue before shrugging and turning his back on Sakura. He was leaving the room when the pink haired child decided to repeat her question. He stopped in the doorway and turned to regard her with a calculating eye—as if he were measuring her as he had the metal pipe earlier.

Finally the boy answered stoically, "People don't usually _see_ Chakra…" Sakura opened her mouth to say that surely ninja could—they could do anything—but those mahogany eyes narrowed and the older boy said, as if he had read her mind, "…sense Chakra, yes…but few people—ninja or otherwise—actually see Chakra." Sakura's mouth formed an O. It wasn't long before she realized what that meant.

Without thinking, she said, "Ah, so it's because of my Eyes!" She had forgotten all about Kirsche's telling her that active Jutsu glowed to her clan's Kekkei Genkai. When the look-alike raised one eyebrow, so much like Gaara might have, Sakura almost explained—only to freeze when she realized that maybe she wasn't supposed to be telling people about what her eyes could do—not even someone who was so much like her best friend. Sakura opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to think of something that she could say—but other than the truth, her mind had gone blank.

Finally Sakura closed her mouth and dug her toe into the dirt, hoping the older boy wouldn't ask any farther. She could feel his eyes boring into her, as if, just by looking, the red-head could dig the truth out of her. If it had been anyone else, Sakura would have shrunk away with fear and sudden shyness—but not with this Gaara-look-alike, and not just because he looked like her best friend, either. It wasn't just looks the two shared—the second-Gaara-look-alike would have terrified her with this same searching look, and his extremely dark green eyes resembled Gaara's much more closely than redish-brown eyes could—but, Sakura knew as she made patterns in the dirt with her toe, that this mahogany-eyed red-head had the same feel to him as her best friend, even without his looks. She couldn't be afraid of him, even if she tried.

When Sakura heard the red-head start moving, she risked a glance up and found that he had turned back around again. He was heading back though the doorway, his head just slightly shaking from side to side as he sighed. Sakura smiled and started after him, relieved that he hadn't pressed her—she wasn't sure she'd have been able to hold herself back from telling the truth if he had. In the doorway she paused, a tickling in the back of her mind telling her that she had forgotten something. Looking around the room, the first thing she noticed was that there was another red and black scorpion (or was it the same one from earlier?) scrambling over the rubble pile. The second was the glint of metal. Her preferred look-alike had forgotten his shuriken embedded in the cupboard door. Sakura's smile grew larger. This time she would definitely make herself useful.

Leaving a wide berth between herself and the scorpion, the pink-haired child ran back to the abandoned shuriken and grabbed it. Now, there is a right way and a wrong way to handle a shuriken. Sakura inadvertently chose the wrong way. Just as the sharp star popped free of the wood, one of the edges sliced through her palm. Sakura's immediate reaction was to drop the weapon, clutch her hand to her chest, and then start crying as blood began welling out of her hand.

When the teen reentered the room, his hands empty, Sakura thought for sure that he was angry this time. His face still looked blank, but his eyes were glaring as he stalked through the doorway. Unable to stop crying, Sakura's voice came out broken by sobs as she attempted to apologize. "I'm sorry—I—your star—" He was definitely glaring now as he stomped towards her. "—I was just—trying to help—sorry—I'm—" His grabbing her wrist and dragging her towards the front door cut off her words, if not her cries of pain. Sakura was shaking madly as they exited the house into the bright sunlight, though whether from fear or her injury, she couldn't tell. The only thing she was sure of was that she had really done it this time. Instead of being helpful, she had made everything worse, and now her preferred Gaara-look-alike probably hated her.

Sakura was so wrapped up in her own thoughts and fears that she didn't realize at first that the teen was now forcing her injured hand open. It was the pain of her stretching cut that brought her back to the real world. Her immediate reaction was to try to pull away from his grasp and the pain, but he held her wrist steadily in place as if she hadn't tried anything at all. Her second reaction was to start bawling even harder.

"Crying isn't going to make your hand heal any faster. All you are doing is wasting water." Sakura flinched at the boy's harsh words. When he touched the bleeding cut, pressing it as if he wanted it to bleed more, she glared at him through her tears. What she saw in his face, though, made her glare fall. His face was as schooled as ever, but in his eyes she saw what looked like relief. She couldn't understand why, though, until he spoke again. "The wound is shallow. Your fingers are all working, so you didn't cut any tendons. I don't see any marks of poison, but you'll need to have a real medic look at it to make sure."

Through her tears, Sakura tried to ask him what he was talking about, but she wasn't sure she had succeeded until he added, "That shuriken was used on a scorpion. It might have gotten some of the venom on it. Now," Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as he pressed his finger against the cut again, but her eyes opened wide when she realized that the pain was suddenly lessening. As soon as her eyelids flicked open she immediately saw why. His finger held a green glow—weaker than Kirsche's had been the one time she had seen the older girl heal her—but green with that familiar ethereal glow none the less. Sakura's tears dried up as, after a very long time, that weak glow vanished, leaving behind only a dull pain and a cut that had stopped bleeding.

Somehow, the only thing Sakura could think to say was: "You can heal?"

"It's hard not to pick it up when your grandmother is one of the best in Suna." For a moment Sakura thought she saw true emotion on the boy's face—a small smile that made him look so much younger, not a teen at all—but that moment passed and his face was serious again. "We've wasted enough time. You need to see a real medic and I need to get back before—" he cut himself off with a shake of his head, and then started dragging her down an alleyway. The red-head's face remained blank the entire time he led her through the maze of streets. He didn't even acknowledge her inquiries as to where he was taking her. In the end, he dropped her off in front of the hospital where Youko worked and then vanished into the crowd without so much as a goodbye. Not knowing what else to do, Sakura slowly entered the hospital.

* * *

Outside everything had looked calm and pristine, but that was not the case in reality. The lobby was a madhouse. Nurses were everywhere, sometimes dragging people, sometimes carts of utensils, and sometimes just themselves, as they ran in through one door or hallway and out another. All around she could hear mummers about 'two-pronged attack's and 'absolute disaster's. Unconsciously Sakura clutched her injured hand to her chest as she shrunk away from one nurse who nearly ran her over with a cart of bandages only to bump into another, this one a young male carrying a clipboard. The man was halfway past her when he started to apologize, only to stop—both verbally and physically—to really look at her.

Sakura might have said something then, either an apology or an explanation, but instead she froze as she realized something. This man was now looking at her the same way Akai had when he had tried to kill her. Sakura felt herself shrinking away from the man, automatically trying to become as small of a target as possible. The man's knuckles went white on his clipboard. "Get out." Sakura flinched at the bite in his words. The clipboard was raised, "Out, you vermin!" Sakura's arms automatically flew in front of her face, protecting it from the clipboard as she wondered what she had done to make him so angry. The smack reverberated through her bones, making Sakura gasp in pain. The clipboard rose again. "The likes of you aren't welcome here." His words echoed in Sakura's head but couldn't quite penetrate the mists of her mind as she stared at her hand. It was bleeding again. She was so absorbed with the fresh flow of blood that this time she didn't raise her arms in defense as the clipboard came down. "There's fifteen dead because of—"

Sakura heard wood snap at the same moment something hit her. Two arms wrapped around her protectively, forcing the pink haired child out of her reserve just as a part of the clipboard and a pile of papers fell near her feet. Karura had appeared out of nowhere to shield her from the clipboard and, a glance around the sandy-blond head showed that Youko had protected both of them—breaking the clipboard in the process with her crossed arms.

Karura released her hold on Sakura when Youko started yelling at the man, holding a fist up to his face threateningly. "How dare you! I won't let you hurt my friends; you stuck up son of a nematode!"

The young man opened his mouth to retort, only to stop when an older woman in a white lab coat stepped into the fray and laid a hand on his shoulder. The older lady shook her head as if she were exasperated and said so quietly that Sakura barely heard it, "Leave it. Or don't you remember what happened to the Kazekage's nephew a year ago. I'm too busy to fix you up like I did him. Now," suddenly she spoke louder, giving the young man a push, "get over to room fifty-three. Rentaro wants those files stat."

Only once the man had gathered the fallen papers and rushed away did the older woman turn to the three girls. "Youko Kaneko," the woman barked, making all the girls jump, "don't threaten my medics—there aren't enough of us to deal with this mess as it is." For the first time Sakura could remember, her future aunt looked contrite—almost ashamed.

Twiddling her fingers, Youko mumbled an apology and then asked without meeting the woman's eyes, "Do you need me to stay and help, Sensei?"

The older woman ran a hand through her lose grey-brown hair. "If you weren't a minor, I'd say yes…but no, you can't stay. You've already used up your hours—stay here any longer and we'll be breaking the terms of your apprenticeship." The woman spared Sakura a glance, then added, "Though you should probably bandage that outsider's hand before you go. She's dripping blood everywhere. Good day." And with that, the woman briskly turned and walked away to meet up with a frantic looking nurse.

Youko immediately dragged Sakura over to a corner, grabbing a role of bandages off a passing cart as she did so, and proceeded to do as her Sensei had instructed. Only when she finished did the mahogany haired girl groan, "Geez, Kura-Chi, how in the world did you manage to slice your hand open like that." Sakura tried to say something about it being an accident, but Youko, not noticing, continued speaking, "And why did it have to be today, of all days?"

This time Youko heard when Sakura asked what she was talking about. She waited to answer, though, until the three of them were passing through the hospital doors, and even then she spoke in a whisper. "There was an ambush—don't know where—but apparently about thirty or so Chunin and Jonin were chasing down the enemy, only to be attacked from behind. So far we have fifteen dead and the rest in various states of emergency and not enough medics to go around. I've already had to help with three surgeries today—three! They normally would never even let me watch, let alone help—they say I'm too young and inexperienced—but not today—"

Youko would have kept speaking if Karura hadn't cut her off. "We get it—it's bad. No wonder everyone was so high-strung." The calmer preteen then turned her eyes to Sakura and asked softly, "Are you sure you're all right? I'm sure that must have been scary."

Sakura's eyes sought the ground as she mumbled, "Yeah…it _was_ scary. I thought that this time…" Sakura trailed off for a while, trying to organizer her thoughts, then continued, "…I thought that things were different here…now…since no one had been mean to me since I came here, but today…"

"Ah…that might be because of us…" Sakura's head jerked up to look at Karura questioningly. "…or, more to the point, because of this idiot's…" she thumbed in the direction of a scowling Youko, "…over reactive nature. You see, about a year ago there was a merchant boy who stayed at the inn for half a year while his father did business in the area. He and Youko became friends during that time—and you've seen how protective she can get. Well, long story short, when this hothead found out that he was being bullied, she went on a rampage—for someone without any ninja training, she sure can pack a punch—but even more important than the black eye she gave the Kazekage's nephew…when the adults caught her and were about to pass judgment on her—and they were on the bullies side, by the way, when it came to foreigners—but anyhow, do you know what she did? She threatened them!"

At this, the red-faced Youko pushed her friend gently, "I did not!"

Karura's eyebrow rose skeptically. "Oh really," she replied, "then what do you call telling them that if they allowed the bullies to get away with things that you Kanekos would cut off all wood trade to the ninja sector?" Before the mahogany-haired girl could respond, Karura turned her indigo eyes to Sakura and explained, "In Suna puppets are a big wartime industry—and puppets—good puppets anyhow—require good woods that are impossible to come by in any way other than foreign trade. And, as you might have guessed already, the Kanekos have a lot of control over the lumber trade."

Youko shoved her friend again as if she was angry, but Sakura recognized the glint in her eyes as a warmer emotion. "Of course we have control over it—all those wood merchants stay at our inn. Unlike the other two inns in town, not only are we the only ones who are welcoming to foreigners, but we're also the only wooden building in town—which makes most foreigners feel more at home than earthen buildings do—and thus we get their business. Oh, and Karu-Karu…I did NOT threaten them." Karuara made to argue, only to be cut off by Youko "I _warned_ them." and her devious grin, "Unlike mere threats, I had every intention of carrying out the trade-ban if they didn't listen. Issa's father was, amongst other things, a lumber merchant, so mom would have backed me in a heartbeat."

Karura sighed, then wrapped an arm around her fellow twin and hugged her. "I know…" wrapping her other arm around Sakura's shoulders, the sand-haired girl added, "…and everyone else knows it too, that's why they've left Kura alone up until now. That incident is still fresh in people's memory. So long as she sticks with us, those xenophobes won't bother her— Got that, Kura? Don't go wandering around alone again like you did today."

Sakura was about to nod in understanding—she didn't want to see anymore eyes filled with hate directed at her—but then she stopped as a thought hit her. "But," she began softly, "I can't." The other two made exclamations that didn't even register in her mind as she mulled over her thoughts about the Gaara-look-alike-number-one. "I've made a friend…" Sakura almost stopped speaking when she remembered how angry he had seemed when they had parted. "…or at least, I think we're friends…" but as Sakura thought about it, she realized that despite all his grouchiness and claims to not care, he had helped her time and time again. "But I can only find him when I'm lost…" Sakura continued, her voice gaining strength, "and when I'm with you guys I never get lost…so I can't…at least, not all the time—stay with you, that is."

Suddenly Youko's face was right in Sakura's as she giggled slyly, "Oh, really? And just who is this so called _friend_ of yours that you would be willing to put yourself in danger just to meet?" For some reason the way Youko emphasized the word 'friend' made Sakura feel as if she was misunderstanding something…as if Youko were speaking another language.

Sakura was about to shrug it off when Karura, of all people, cemented the idea that they were speaking about two different things. "Aww…" cooed the older girl, "…you have a knight in shining armor. If he's the one you find when you're lost, that must mean he's the one who gets you back home…so cute! Who is he? We can help you track him down so you don't have to put yourself in danger just to meet him."

Sakura just stared at the two confusedly. She was fairly certain she didn't know any knights—and neither of the Gaara-look-alikes had been wearing armor—but since she had been talking about her preferred look-alike when the twins had popped their questions, she decided to answer them based on that. "I don't know."

Apparently the way she had answered made Youko think she was holding back, because the grey-eyed girl begged, "Ahh, come on. Don't be like that. We can keep a secret."

Sakura shook her head as they continued strolling through the windy streets, "I didn't mean—it's just…" Sakura could feel her face turning hot. "I really don't know." She could sense both girls staring at her incredulously, and it made her want to bury herself under a pile of sand. She settled for staring at her feet as she mumbled, "I—I keep forgetting to ask…his name…" Or more to the point—Sakura thought as Youko squealed something about being adorable—she had never thought to ask in the first place.

"That's too bad," was Karura's sensible answer, "Maybe if you describe him to us…" And so Sakura explained how the red-haired, mahogany-eyed boy looked just like her best friend, only older, and how she had even run into another person who looked similar—only she didn't like the second look-alike because he was mean, whereas the first one only acted mean, but really wasn't. By the time she finished all that, they had almost reached the inn and both of the older girls were giving her strange looks that were intermittently broken by glances at each other. Finally Karura said, "Man, Kura…you really…" but then she trailed off as she shook her head.

Youko, a funny grin on her face, spoke in the silence left by her friend, "I can think of at least four people like that—red hair's pretty common here, if you haven't noticed—and not a one of them is an easy catch." Then Youko turned to grin at Karura as she added, "But at least the eye-color thing says that the two of you aren't crushing on the same guy." Sakura just looked at the older girl questioningly while Karura glared, her face tinged pink. Youko kept speaking to Sakura as if she didn't notice, "Not only would that be bad for your friendship, but you wouldn't stand a chance—" Suddenly Youko paled and she hastened to add, as if fearing she might have hurt Sakura's feelings, "—Nothing against you, Kura, it's just that our Karu-Chi's family is—has—well…"

Karura interrupted, her cheeks bright red but her eyes steady, "She's trying to say that my family's notorious for marrying their daughters off to the Kazekage…and that they're already working on an arranged marriage between me and the guy most likely to be chosen as the next Kazekage." From her tone of voice, Sakrua didn't think Karura minded too much. Before she could think to say anything, though, Youko was speaking again, hiding her grin behind one hand.

"But I've heard your boy's got some competition if he wants to be Kazekage, thanks to that upstart genius who's, what—nine, ten?—and already a Chunin. I've heard that the only reason people say he's not assured the position is because he's so young and that he and the Third Kazekage don't get along too well. Wouldn't it stink if he became the Fourth, and you had to marry him instead?" If Sakura hadn't been looking, she wouldn't have noticed Karura stiffen.

To her surprise, though, the sandy-haired girl only gave the slightest of nods, her eyes going distant a moment before she stopped in her tracks—right in front of the inn door—and gasped, "Five!" Before Sakura or Youko could ask for an explanation, she added, "Not four, but five!" Sakura still had no clue what this meant, but Youko apparently did, not that that helped Sakura any.

"Ah-ha, you might be right, Karu-Karu—" Youko exclaimed as she clapped her hands together with fierce joy, yelling over the sound of the strengthening wind, "I've heard he's tall for his age—not to mention a stick in the mud—he might really just be that guy! If so, all your problems are solve—"

"Sis," Sakura jumped in surprise as she realized the inn door was open and Shin was staring out at them, "you are too loud, I could hear you from the kitchen. By the way, mom wants you—something about the frying pan." He stepped aside as his sister flew past him, her face drawn out in a mix between apprehension and outright terror.

"What was that about?" asked Karura as the three of them stepped inside, closing the door on the howling desert wind.

Shin shrugged as he led the two girls farther into the inn, "I think this morning she tried to cook something before she left for the hospital. Naturally, it ended up a disaster." A door to one of the inn's smaller dining rooms was opened, revealing a birthday banner and a small pile of presents. Shin looked at Sakura's slightly confused, slightly shocked expression, and smiled.

"Happy birthday, Kura."

* * *

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed this long chapter! My life, as always, is hectic, and free-time to write is minimum; but always the plot bunnies chase me down and bounce in my head unrelentingly until I do them the service of putting them in words—so fear not, chapters will keep coming—otherwise the bunnies would eat me alive…

Well, anyhow, I wonder if this chapter has made it more clear who at least one of the Gaara-look-alikes are—there were a number of tell-tale hints this time around.

As always, reviews are loved, constructive criticism is welcome, and flamers shall be fed alive to the evil-version of plot bunnies (just as persistent as regular plot bunnies, only infinitely less welcome). Now, let move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: random-k (I'm so glad to hear I could still surprise you), BriEva (As always, thanks for such a long review. In answer to questions, the 4th Kazekage doesn't have a name in the manga, so I have free license to name him as I want, not that that will matter to much; the question about the xenophobes should already have been answered by this chapter;as to Karura and the 4th, you might find out next time; Akai's daughter was indeed mentioned earlier; No, Yashamaru doesn't know her true eye color; finally, as to your photo hypothesis, you are on the right track), AvainFligh (thanks, I hope you continue to enjoy), Genuinely-Unique (I will not name either as such, but I won't deny it either), & SnowWolfSpirit (Thanks for all the reviews, I hope to always keep you on your toes) for reviewing!


	29. Birthdays, Conversations, and Dreams

Disclaimer: Have the evil plot-bunnies been gnawing on your brain? If not, then you should know the answer. If so, then doom on you.

Chapter 29: Birthdays, Conversations, and Dreams

To Sakura's great relief, the birthday party remained a small matter, tucked away in a windowless room that no one aside from those people she was already accustomed to entered. Megumi had made up all the pink-haired girl's favorite snacks—and then some—with the centerpiece being a cake so large Sakura feared for a bit that Megumi had invited a bunch of strangers to the event. Sakura only relaxed once she was sure that the party would only include Megumi, her children, Kirsche and Karura (apparently Yashamaru had been sent on a mission and so he couldn't make it).

After blowing out the birthday candles, Sakura received her presents. From Youko she got the book on first-aid that she had noticed in the bookstore's window the other day (which explained why it had disappeared when she had gone to buy it herself); similarly, from Karura she received the book about finding your ninja way that had also vanished (apparently, as soon as Karura found out her brother had left on his mission, she ran out to buy it, since she knew Yashamaru would have stopped her from giving such a 'dangerous' book to such a 'weak' child). Kirsche's present was a lovely red leather bookmark imprinted with some viney, flowering, prickly-looking plants (which fit so perfectly with her two new books that Sakura had to wonder if Kirsche had Seen what those two would get her) and the knowledge that there would be no lessons tonight, to commemorate her 'birthday'. Shin's gift was a beautifully carved wooden hairpin of cherry blossoms and butterflies—and after some not-so-vague hints from Youko, the blushing Shin was persuaded to explain that he had worked all night to make it just for Sakura's birthday.

Sakura's final gift came from Megumi and consisted of a small, white wooden pendent with intricately etched designs on both sides and a slit through its center through which passed a dark blue ribbon. Megumi had explained, while rubbing her head self-consciously, that unlike her son, she wasn't good at doing delicate woodwork, so she had asked an acquaintance to make this for her—but, she assured Sakura, the design was all of her own making. She also explained that the ribbon was replaceable and that the pendent could be worn as either a necklace or a bracelet—or, as Youko pointed out, if she used a long enough ribbon, it could even be a belt, or a sash, or—Sakura didn't get to find out what else since just then Megumi interrupted her daughter, saying she had already made her point.

After that, the small group ate dessert for dinner, played games like pin-the-kunai-on-the-assassin (using a paper kunai, of course), and in general had a good time. As the party wound down to an end, Karura announced that she should start heading home. The door to their small room was opened, however, only to reveal the sound of howling wind and, when a window was sought out, that the air outside was filled with sand so thick that nothing else could be seen.

"Well," huffed Megumi, one hand going to her hip, "looks like you're going to have to spend the night, Karura. I'll—" This time it was Youko's turn to interrupt her mother.

"I've got it, mom!" The exuberant preteen shouted above the wind, then added, "Come on—Karu—Kura!" Sakura didn't realize at first that Youko had been speaking to her—she thought Youko was just calling Karura Karu-Karu again—but then her future aunt gabbed her hand and proceeded to drag both her and Karura up the stairs at a run that didn't end until they had reached Youko's room.

As Youko threw her door open and ran straight to her dresser, Karura sighed, "I take it we're having a sleepover, then?" Sakura noticed she was smiling even if she sounded and otherwise acted as if she were annoyed.

Youko's response was to throw an extra nightgown of hers at Karura's face. Then, turning to Sakura, Youko said, "Hurry and go get changed. We're all sleeping in here tonight." Sakura raced to obey, having caught some of Youko's excitement. By the time she left her room in her night clothes, Sakura found Shin just reaching the top of the stairs.

"Hi!" Sakura said as she bounced up to him with a large smile, "Thank you, again, for the hair pin. It's beautiful. I love it!" The corners of Shin's mouth twitched up in the barest of smiles that—had Sakura not known her 'daddy' for all of her life—she would have missed entirely. She did miss the slight tinting of his cheeks at her praise.

After a brief pause—that some might have called hesitation—Shin patted Sakura's head affectionately. "You are very welcome. I take it that Sis is insisting on turning this sandstorm into a sleepover." Sakura nodded jubilantly—this was only her second sleep over ever, and the more she thought about it, the more excited she became. "Ah," Shin sighed, "then I suggest you go get your pillow and some extra blankets so you do not get cold." Then, when he noticed Sakura's questioning look, he explained, "Sis only has two pillows, one for her and one for Karura—and she steals the blankets. Here, I will help you carry things." In the end, the only thing Shin let her carry was the pillow while he held all of the blankets from her bed.

As they neared Youko's room, the over exuberant girl's voice carried to them—only slightly muffled by the door—as she exclaimed, "I can't wait! We are going to stay up all night even if it kills us! Oh, and let's try to find out more about that boy from Kura-Kura—" At this point, Sakura heard Karura try to say something, but Youko either didn't hear, or didn't care, because she continued, "I want to figure out for sure who has captured her attention and whether he's worthy of her—"

"Youko!" This time Karura forced her way into the conversation and the anger in her voice made Sakura stop dead in her tracks—her fist an inch away from announcing her and Shin's presence with a knock. Sakura couldn't remember having ever heard Karura yell, let alone sound truly angry. Beside her, Shin had also frozen. Karura then continued speaking in a lower voice that Sakura had to strain to hear. "Please, be more careful—what if he overheard?"

"What in the world are you talking about?" asked the ever loud Youko. "We know that Kura's so-called friend isn't here—she would have pointed him out to us if he were."

Sakura wasn't sure, but she thought she heard Karura sigh. "That's not who I meant, Youko. I know _he's_ not here—I'm talking about the one person we both know and care about who _is_ here and who would be devastated if he heard."

After a brief pause, Youko responded, "I still don't get it. Are you talking about…?" Since Sakura didn't hear anything, she guessed that Karura had either done something to express her point or said something too quietly to be heard in answer to Youko's question. Youko continued loudly, "Even so, why would he care—well, not to say he shouldn't care, I know he wouldn't want Kura-Chi's 'friend' to be a bad guy either, but I don't see any reason why he'd be _devastated_."

This time Sakura was sure Karura had sighed. "You really are dense, my friend. I really feel for your—"

* * *

Whatever else Karura would have said was lost to Sakura as Shin, having freed one hand from his bundle of blankets, reached around Sakura to rap on the door loudly. When his sister opened her door, Shin stuffed the blankets in her face, then turned around without a word and hurried down the hall to his room.

This time Sakura saw Karura shake her head sadly as Youko asked around the bundle in her arms. "Well, what got into him?"

As Sakura expected—thanks to what she'd overheard—Youko's main objective that night was to interrogate her about her mysterious new red-headed friend. His habits, his mannerisms, what he and Sakura talked about—anything that Youko thought could better point out who the mystery boy could be was asked—and then asked again when Sakura's answers were 'insufficient'. After more than an hour of this, Sakura started to feel like crying in frustration. She didn't know who the boy was, she had only met him twice and he didn't talk much, so she didn't know much about him either. All she wanted was to be his friend—and for the life of her, Sakura couldn't understand why Youko was so persistent with her inquiries and why she kept acting as if Sakura were purposefully holding back information.

"But seriously, Kura…" Youko repeated for the fifth time, "…what do you two talk about? And don't just say he's the tall, dark and silent type—_silence doesn't form attachments!_" This last part Youko yelled feelingly—but only the word 'silence' went unmuffled, since Karura had stuffed a pillow in the loudmouth's face.

As Karura shushed her friend, reminding her that other people were sleeping, Sakura stared down at the pillow she had clutched in her hands through blurry eyes. Part of her held-back tears were due to her injured hand hurting—she had been grasping the pillow tightly since the beginning of the Youko's investigation—but the biggest reason for her unshed tears was the fact that her future aunt didn't seem to believe her. Sakura didn't realize she was sniffling until Karura wrapped an arm around her comfortingly.

"There, there, Kura," the blond mumbled soothingly, leaning her head on Sakura's, "don't mind Youko, she's—" Without warning, Karura jerked away from Sakura with a gasp. All Sakura could do was look first at her ashen face, and then turn to see that Youko was also looking at her in a similar—if less pale—way. Before she could ask what was going on, though, Karura's head had snapped towards Youko. "Get bandages, quick." Sakura barely squeaked out a one-word question, some sort of mix between 'what' and 'why', when Youko hastily exited the room. It was then that Karura turned back to her, her eyes full of worry as she reached out to Sakura's hand. "I'm so sorry, Kura. I shouldn't have let her push you so hard—I should have realized sooner that she was baking you into a corner and you—your poor hand! I'm so sorry!"

And with this Sakura finally thought to look down, not at her pillow, but at the bandaged hand she was grasping it with. What she found was that both pillow and bandages were turning bright red. The pain that Sakura hadn't thought much about before came rushing to meet her head on as she stared at the spreading red patch on her pillow. It was then that Sakura did what any normal five-year-old would: she burst out crying. Sakura cried through Youko's return, through the rebandaging process, and then through the lecture that the motherly Karura gave the penitent Youko

By the time Sakura quit crying, Karura had somehow maneuvered the conversation so that it was about the latest fashions—something which, though boring to Sakura, was a topic which made Youko forget—at least for the moment—about bombarding Sakura with questions that she couldn't answer. When Karura sent Sakura a wink before encouraging her grey-eyed friend on the subject of shawls, the pink haired child finally smiled. It was nice to know that, even when Gaara wasn't around, there was someone there to look out for her.

This thought led to further thoughts about her friends back home and their relations here in the past. As Youko sang the praises of spandex, Sakura wondered, for the first time, how Karura was related to Gaara—that they were related was a given, since Yashamaru was Gaara's uncle, but what she didn't know was whether they had any other siblings and, perhaps more importantly to Sakura's mind, whether Karura could possibly be Gaara's mother. And so Sakura settled on the bed with a new pillow held in her arms to watch her future aunt and her sandy-haired friend discus the finer points of frills and ribbons.

Sakura felt as if she had just fallen asleep, thinking distantly that Karura looked quite like Temari, when she was roughly awoken by Youko's hand shaking her shoulder. "Come on, Kura-Kura, no sleeping!" Sakura blinked tiredly but obeyed, raising her head from where it had fallen onto her pillow. "That's better!" exclaimed the girl with the messy red-brown hair and the flat looking grey eyes, "I told you: we're going to stay up all night, even if it kills us!" And killing them it might be doing, Sakura realized, as the still exuberant girl's eyelids drooped for a moment before springing back open. "Ah, I know, why don't you tell us about yourself, Kura-Chi? That way you won't fall asleep."

Karura seconded this announcement, adding in a low whisper that this subject would be less boring for Sakura than the fashion talk had been. And so Sakura was obliged to talk about herself. At first she found this hard to do. It wasn't that she didn't know things about herself, but she was unsure of what it would be safe to say. Starting slowly at first, Sakura worked her way around her past, telling them as much of the truth as she felt safe divulging. After a pointed question by Karura, Sakura was even induced to explain (extremely carefully so as not to raise any suspicions about her and Kirsche) why her eyes were green and not blue"…Kirsche found me living with my…my father's family, and told me that my mother was actually a Hoshi, and she had died giving birth to me and so—" Sakura jumped when she heard a sound growl out like thunder, only to relax when a grinning Karura pointed to a passed out Youko—snoring like a bear in winter.

"Come on, Kura," whispered the older girl as she got off the bed, "let's get Miss Bossy-Pants under the covers—then we can finally get some sleep ourselves." Sakura nodded and went to help. When they finally had Youko pushed to one edge of the bed, with the covers pulled to her chin and tucked all around her body—Karura's touch—Sakura and the indigo-eyed girl got on the other side of the bed with the blankets Shin had brought from Sakura's room. It was a bit crowded, but with how tired she was, Sakura didn't mind too much. She had just closed her eyes when a thought struck her.

Turning to Karura, she asked in the smallest of whispers, not even sure if the girl was still awake, "Karura…am I a monster?" Indigo eyes flashed open.

"Why in the world would you ask something like that? Of course you aren't."

Sakura, unable to match that unwavering indigo stare, dropped her eyes to her bandaged hand as memories of a faraway time returned to her—probably, she realized, these thoughts had come to her because she had just been talking about her birth mother to someone who might just be her best friend's mother. "My aunt once said…" Sakura answered softly, glad Youko was asleep, "…well, it wasn't about me, but…she called my best friend a monster, since his mother died just like mine did. She said that he killed her…"

Karura sighed, then wrapped her arms around Sakura, pulling her into her chest as if she were a mother comforting a child, "…and she's got you wondering if you and he both are monsters…oh, poor Kura. Neither of you are to blame for your mother's death. All mothers know that having babies is dangerous—but they have them anyways because they love them…and if they die…they do so knowing they were bringing a life into this world…a life they treasured above their own. After all, if they hadn't loved you, they wouldn't have gone through all those months of pregnancy to have you…"

The blond haired girl continued on like this, crooning soft, comforting words in Sakura's ear until she was sure the girl had fallen asleep. Only then did she allow herself to do the same.

* * *

_Sakura was having an amazing dream—strangely, she knew for once that it was a dream—but she thought little of that as she and Temari rode unicorns through a forest of candy. Beside them rode Kankuro on a giant wooden bird that was wearily eyeing the two-headed wolf that was being ridden by both Karura and Yashamaru. As they continued forward into a marshmallow-filled clearing, Sakura saw Youko and Shin picking rainbow-candy-canes and gumdrop-flowers—the former was making a candy-bouquet while the latter was tossing the candy to a two-tailed cat. Yashamaru called out a greeting, then went on to lecture about how the digestive tract of two-tailed cats was incompatible with glycosides—Sakura had no clue what that meant, but the part of her that recognized thi dream rationalized that this part, at least, had been informed by her reading earlier that day, right before she encountered her preferred Gaara-look-alike._

"_Speaking of," Dream Sakura said aloud as she glanced all around the clearing, "where …?" In Sakura's dream-state, she didn't find it peculiar that they were in a forest of impossible makeup or that they had all arrived via improbable transport, but she did find it strange that this gathering of all the people she could call friends was missing her two red-heads. After all one of them was her bestest friend in the whole world (behind her, as she thought this, Karura corrected her grammar) and the other she desperately wanted to be best friends with._

"_What's going on?" Dream Sakura asked to no one in particular, "Where are they?"_

_Grinning, Youko forced the bouquet into Yashamaru's arms—which somehow cut off his lecture—and then Youko answered oh-so-helpfully, "Don't know."_

_Temari, on the other hand, shrugged, looking a little distracted by a nearby chocolate bush as she responded, "Last I saw Gaara, he was back home, but I haven't seen Mr. No-Name."_

_Kankuro—jumping on one foot with the other stuck in the stirrup of his wooden bird—suggested, "Why don't you go search for him. He's got to stand out if he looks like Gaara."_

_Shin nodded in agreement as he helped Kankuro get both feet on the ground. Once that was accomplished, Shin pointed towards a patch of dark forest, saying, "Try that way." And so Sakura did. The moment she entered the forest—the world went black. If she hadn't known this was a dream, she would have started freaking out. Instead she just kept walking, wondering what her two red-heads were up to. No sooner had the thought been finished when something white jumped out of the darkness, just barely missing Sakura's head._

_Sakura's face lit up with a smile as she gasped, "Fireflie!", and then proceeded to run through the darkness after the white light. It wasn't until she caught it, only to have it fly right through her hands that Sakura realized two things; the first was that the light was no firefly, the second was that the light, whatever it really was, was making designs in the darkness, leaving behind little white streaks as if the darkness were a canvas. As Sakura watched, the 'firefly' was joined by many others like it, and soon the random patterns left in the air converged to form a picture._

_Very quickly, Sakura found herself in a room made of white-on-black, but she wasn't alone. Inside the room were white-on-black people, one of which (after a few moments) she recognized. It was her preferred Gaara-look-alike. Sakura grinned, calling out a happy greeting—only to find out that she had no voice. Surprised, Sakura tried to run forward to grab his arm—whether for her own comfort or to simply let him know she was there, she didn't know—but once again, nothing happened. It soon became clear to Sakura that she couldn't interact with this dream as she had earlier, and so she decided to do the only thing she could: she stood still and watched the boy who could have been Gaara's big brother as he interacted with the others in the room._

_Sakura's preferred look-alike sat on a chair, his arms crossed as he glared at the small cluster of middle-aged people near the door. On either side of his chair stood an old person, one a man and one a woman—from the slight resemblance she could detect between them, Sakura assumed these two were his grandparents. The man at the front of the group of middle-aged people was speaking—not that Sakura could hear actual word, only vague sounds—and from the looks of it, the man was angry at the teen, jabbing his finger in the air in her friend's direction as if he were trying to pop an obstinate bubble. The congregation behind the man were nodding their heads in agreement—and for the briefest of moments, Sakura got the weird feeling that these people were like flowers bobbing in the wind, without a mind or will of their own. Sakura didn't get a chance to ponder why she would have such an uncharacteristic thought about these strangers because her attention was grabbed by the look-alike's grandmother as she took a step forward, saying something softly. Sakura wasn't sure if the old woman was standing up for her grandson or if she was agreeing with the group before her, but whatever the case, Sakura could see from the way her friend's eyes smoldered and the way he shifted his position that he was only getting angrier._

_As the dream continued, it became clear that Sakura's preferred look-alike was in trouble with the group of people, but that he, at least, didn't think he should be. The few times the red-head spoke it was short and, to Sakura's surprise, with no visible sign of anger (or at least he wasn't getting up and yelling at the assembly like Kankuro would have, nor was he threatening them like Temari would have). Despite this, Sakura could tell that he was still, very much, angry, and when the people finally left, he shot out of the chair to glare at his grandmother. The old woman crossed her arms and returned his glare, suddenly not looking soft at all. They exchanged words, the grandmother's voice becoming more and more heated while her grandson's posture, though not his voice, became more and more tense. _

_This went on until the grandfather interrupted, laying a hand on the teen's shoulder. It was then that Sakura found out just how similar this look-alike really was to Gaara as the red-head snapped. One instant the old man was gently laying his hand down, saying something in a soothing voice, and the next the old man's hand had been thrown off as the boy reacted with ninja-like skills that ended with the old man pinned to the wall by Sakura's angry friend. The old woman moved forward, starting to say something, only to be cut off by the red-head. Sakura was angry at her friend for hurting his grandfather and wanted to go lecture him, but as she listened to her friend's unintelligible words spoken with anger, she felt like something was amiss. _

_It wasn't until the red-head released his grandfather roughly, then vanished, also like a ninja, (she was really starting to think that he might be one) that she figured out what had been bothering her. Like the one time he had spoken to her about his late mother, her preferred Gaara-lookalike had spoken as if he were angry, and yet, just like Gaara, his eyes had screamed out that he was hurting inside. It would seem, Sakura decided, that neither Gaara nor his lookalike got angry easily—not outwardly anyways—but when they did, people were likely to end up hurt…including themselves._

_And with that thought the white-on black image vanished, leaving the pink-haired child in total darkness yet again. It would be hours (or at least feel like hours) before the 'fireflies' returned, and by then, Sakura was missing her bestest friend in the whole world more than ever._

* * *

_At first the 'fireflies' seemed to be flying around Sakura aimlessly, but this time Sakura knew better than to try to catch them; and so, she stood and waited for them to form a picture like they had before. But they didn't. Instead they vanished in a flash of white light that blinded the child for a few moments. By the time her eyes had cleared, Sakura found that she was in Suna again—this time in color—and she was standing on a building she knew hadn't been built in New Suna yet…which meant, this had to be Old Suna, the one she had come from. Sakura bounced happily up and down at the thought of having returned home, even just in a dream, then jumped around even more when she realized that this time she could move. Sakura was just starting to spin in circles, reveling in her sudden freedom, when a scream shattered her happy world._

_Before Sakura knew what she was doing, she was racing towards where the sound had come from, bouncing down the building in a way that she could never have done in real life, and didn't really want to be doing in this dream-life either. But bounce away she did, against her will, as her dream propelled her forward. When Sakura reached the ground, people ran right through her as if she weren't there, yelling out indistinguishably as they fled from…something…Sakura had no clue what. Since Sakura wasn't even given the option of dodging the crowd or turning tail and running with them, she soon found herself brought before a cloud of dust and sand, swirling like a sandstorm. It didn't take much thought to come up with the reason for such a small, contained storm._

_Franticly Sakura ran into the cloud, crying out for her best friend in a silent voice. When she caught sight of two shadows, one big and one small, Sakura didn't think—she didn't even wonder if it was the dream moving her or if she was moving herself—she just threw herself at her best friend, her arms held wide to wrap him in a hug, to sooth away his pain, to make the storm stop…_

_Sakura could hear Gaara's voice, slightly muffled but otherwise understandable…and then she noticed that this _wasn't_ a dream…as her arms passed right through him._

"_What'd you do with her?" _

…_It was a nightmare._

"_Where's Sakura?!" shrieked the boy with sand in place of his arm…_

* * *

Well, I hope you liked this installment of Kindred Spirits. There were a number of important occurrences in this chapter that will come back later on, so I hope you caught them.

Thanks once again to BriEva for her picture of Sakura (there should be a link to it on my profile if you would like to see it) and for giving me the idea about the necklace…it might turn out to be of importance…but I'd hate to give too many hints away (I've already given so many in-text), so we'll just leave it at that.

I actually have a good portion of the next chapter written (mostly because it was originally going to be a part of this one, but then it got too long and had to be cut), so the next update should be here in a few weeks unless I don't get many reviews…the more reviews I get, though, the sooner it will appear…of that, I can assure you.

Now, speaking of reviews, they are extremely welcome, as is constructive criticism (here, have some Mochi)…flamers, however, I'm not sweet on…so, let's skip over them and move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: general zargon (you'll just have to wait and find out), BriEva (I won't say yet whether you're right or not...as to your comment on Li...well, if you don't like him, that's good...you're not usually supposed to like the bad guy. You _are_ correct that this is not (at least in the end) a Sakura/Sasori pairing. Your question about the Kaneko's power...well...you'll have to wait to see. No, Shin was never a ninja. Most likely he met Haruka through his business ties. I can't answer your other questions without giving things away...so, sorry), moodymel, Random k (ok, it's always fun to hear guesses, though), Freya (she will return, but not yet. I'm glad I can hook you despite that) & Genuinely-Unique for reviewing!


	30. Nightmares

Disclaimer: I'm stuck somewhere between reality and a dream…if you get what I mean…

Chapter 30: Nightmares

_Sakura could hear Gaara's voice, slightly muffled but otherwise understandable…and then she noticed that this _wasn't_ a dream…as her arms passed right through him._

"_What'd you do with her?" _

…_It was a nightmare._

"_Where's Sakura?!" shrieked the boy with sand in place of his arm. _

"…_kura…"_

"Kura!" Sakura shot up at the sound of her nickname, only to fall back to the bed, dizzy and half-blinded by the sunlight (until she heard the curtains being closed). "Oh, Kura," Sakura recognized Karura's worried tone, "I didn't mean to frighten you, but you were crying…" Sakura blinked up tiredly at Karura, who seemed to be the only one in the room. Her heart was still hammering in her chest from her nightmare, but when she noticed that in the sunlight the preteen's sandy-hair look just like Temari's she couldn't stop from throwing herself at the older girl, despite her dizziness. Unlike Temari, though, Karura didn't act tough or tell her to suck it up; instead, the indigo-eyed girl sat quietly beside her, rubbing her back and cooing gently until Sakura's tears stopped.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Karura asked softly. Sakura began to nod, only to freeze as the world swam before her eyes. What could she tell this girl? If she told Karura about Gaara, even a dream Gaara, what if that messed up the future? So far she had gotten away with just calling him her bestest friend ever and giving vague descriptions that could be about anyone...but she just knew that with this dream she couldn't really explain why it was so bad without saying things about Gaara that would be notably about him…something that a mother or an aunt might remember in the future. For a brief moment Sakura contemplated talking about the white-on-black dream she'd had about her preferred lookalike, but then she remembered Youko's intense questioning the night before and thought better of it. Although Karura was more considerate than Youko, Sakura had a feeling she would still be more interested in that subject than necessary…and if Youko ever found out…Sakura didn't even want to think about that.

And so Sakura began to shake her head no, only to freeze as the world swam again. Why was the world swimming? Earlier she had just assumed that she had gotten dizzy because she had sat up too quickly—she had read something about that back in Old Suna—but she had been upright for a while now, so why? Karura was giving her a strange look, but Sakura barely noticed as she wondered why this dizzying sensation felt so familiar to her. And then she remembered the two times in the past she had felt this way…the two times she had run out of Chakra. A quick check confirmed that she was down to hardly any Chakra at all…but why? She hadn't even had any lessons last night, nor had she activated her Eyes since she got back to the inn last night. She should be full—or at least nearly so—but that was not the case.

"…you all right?" Sakura nearly jumped when a cold hand was pressed to her forehead, "You're hot…" Karura stated, her face scrunching up in worry, "…you don't look so good Kura…and I'm not so sure it's just the nightmare after all." The older girl started to stand as she said, "Maybe I should go get Megumi, or maybe a doctor…" Sakura grabbed at her hand, stopping the blond from leaving.

"No…it's…I think it's my Chakra…it's…gone…I don't know why."

Karura stared silently at Sakura for a few moments, then her eyes closed as if she were remembering something as she mumbled, "I thought it was strange…" Her indigo eyes then snapped open and she bent down to look into Sakura's green eyes, her brow furrowing. "Hm…" she mumbled, then stood up straight again, "Well, they're definitely green right now, but…well…" Karura trailed off, rubbing one arm as if she were uncomfortable, "…for a moment there, when you woke up…I thought they were blue…but your eyes closed so fast, and when you opened them again…" Karura shook her head, then frowned. When Sakura asked her what was wrong, the girl didn't answer—she didn't even indicate that she had heard anything, which was not normal, not for Karura.

Finally, after Sakura poked her arm, Karura jumped, grabbing Sakura's hand—but strangely, the hand she grabbed wasn't the one that had poked her, but rather the one that was bandaged. Without asking, Karura swiftly unraveled the wrappings until it was at the last layer, and she would have continued farther if Sakura hadn't yelped in pain as the bloody, caked on bandage pulled on her skin. The older girl halted, then flushed, "I'm so sorry, Kura, but I think—wait, Youko said water helps if the bandage sticks—I'll be right back." Karura was gone before Sakura could ask what was going on. All she knew was that the girl was muttering, "…of course Youko would be gone when we need her" she ran out of sight of the door she had left wide open (another uncharacteristic action, Sakura noted in the back of her mind).

Sakura was just feeling the need to lie back down so that her head wouldn't fall off when Karura came racing back into sight, a dripping washrag in one hand and Shin in tow with the other. Apparently she hadn't explained whatever was wrong to him either, because he was stumbling over questions as she dragged him into the room. His inquires ended, though, the moment he caught sight of Sakura. His first reaction, much to Sakura's confusion, was to look away quickly, his face even more emotionless than usual…his second reaction was to quickly turn back to look at her, his eyes widening and his skin going pale as if a big secret had been reveled…and he didn't like it.

Karura, oblivious to all of this, was on her knees by Sakura's side the moment she let go of Shin. "Your hand," she ordered, taking the offered hand and dabbing the crusted-on bandage with the washcloth with a lot more care than she had when she was removing the dressing earlier. As Shin came over, an overtly worried look on his face, Karura slowly started to tug the bandages off. Sakura closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from whimpering—the water helped, but it still hurt. She didn't open her eyes again until she felt someone sit beside her, pulling her into a one-armed hug. It was Shin, and his face was turned so she couldn't see it.

Karura's gasp as the bandage fell to the floor made Sakura forget about Shin's strange behavior for a moment. The girl's indigo eyes were glued on her hand, where marks of red, puffy skin stretched away from the semi-scabbed-semi-bleeding cut that had a bit of white at the edges. Tears were leaking out of Karura's eyes, leaving Sakura flabbergasted—Karura hadn't cried yesterday when she'd seen the cut. Shin's hand on her shoulder tightened. "What happened?" he asked straightforwardly, his voice not betraying his emotions.

It took Sakura a few moments to pull her thoughts together. "Well," she began slowly, "there was a…it was a little black and red thing…he called it a scorpion—" the rest of her statement was cut off as Karura shot to her feel with a wail at the same moment that Shin's hold on her stiffened.

"Oh, Kura!" cried the sandy-haired girl, "I shouldn't have let Youko interrupt you yesterday when we asked about it—we would have made those doctors look at it we'd known—that's it! I'll go get a doctor!" Sakura tried to stop her, but she was already out the door, yelling back to Shin in a very Youko-like manner, "When I get back you had better still be with Kura—don't you dare run away no matter what she says!" And then she was out of sight of the still open doorway.

Sakura blinked, wondering aloud, "What was that about?" Shin only 'hn'ed' in answer. Sakura, unsure of what else to do, withdrew her injured hand back to her side while looking down at the red-tinged wound. Absently she wished her head would quit feeling like it was a boulder…maybe then she could actually figure out why Karura had been so worked up about her injury.

Shin, as if it pained him, looked at Sakura and asked quietly, "What happened?" and when the pink haired girl looked at him questioningly, he looked aside again, adding, "It wasn't the scorpion that cut you hand."

"No, it was a throwing star." Sakura sighed, letting her heavy head fall on her future father-figure's shoulder. Shin stiffened at the contact, barely catching her words; not that Sakura noticed as she explained briefly about her new friend and going back to retrieve the shuriken he'd used on the scorpion, only to be injured and brought to the hospital where she was hit with a clipboard. When she got to the part about her, Youko and Karura's discussion on the way back from the hospital, Sakura finally sat up straight (closing her eyes and holding her head with her good hand until the worst of the spinning went away) and then looked at Shin, who, as the explanation went on, had started to relax and even seemed a bit happy, though Sakura couldn't begin to understand why.

"What I don't get," Sakura said earnestly to the preteen, "is why those two started acting weird when I brought up…well, like I said, I don't know his name, but mostly I've been mentally calling him Ga—" Sakura flinched, quickly changing what she was about to say, "—my best friend in the entire world's lookalike…because he looks like he could be my friend's big brother—I mean, I know those two aren't brothers, but still…" Sakura trailed off as she realized that Shin was suddenly stiff again. The pink haired child looked at Shin inquisitively, tilting her head to the side as she asked worriedly, "What is it?"

Once again he looked away from her before answering her question with a hesitant question of his own. "This best friend ever…that you keep mentioning…is a boy?" When Sakura's answer was an affirmative, Shin seemed to deflate a little, but then, seeming to remember something, her turned back around, still not meeting her eyes, and asked further, "You said…the guy you met…could be his big brother? How…old…is your best friend?"

Perhaps because her entire body was starting to feel like a boulder, perhaps because her pillow was calling her name or perhaps because she just wasn't thinking straight, Sakura answered truthfully, without a moment's hesitation or a moment's thought. "He's five, and he was the first friend I ever made." As her eyes flickered closed, Sakura completely missed the way relief, and even hope, plastered itself on Shin's face. "He liked me even though I don't look like everyone else." Sakura murmured as her head fell forward.

When Karura came back, with one of the greenest medics Suna had in her grasp, she found Sakura sleeping in an unusually pleased-looking Shin's arms.

* * *

Sakura didn't awaken until she heard Kirsche being brought in by Megumi, and even then she couldn't make her eyes open. She felt as if her eyelids were weighed down by boulders, and when she tried to raise her hand to brush the boulders away, she found that her hand felt the same. She couldn't move, and on top of that, she felt sick to her stomach, hot, and clammy. All in all, she felt even worse than she had before she'd fallen asleep.

"I'm sorry," Megumi was saying, "I would have gone to get you earlier, but there was so much to do in the aftermath of that storm…and no one even told me about it until after the medic left…"

"It is alright," Kirsche's voice answered softly as the sound of her feet crossed the room, "don't feel bad about the delay. My being here isn't going to do much to change her current predicament." Kirsche then paused and sat beside Sakura on the bed. Sakura involuntarily groaned as the bed dipped and a wave of nausea hit her. Sakura heard Megumi croon something, but it was drowned out by Kirsche's next statement, "Megumi, would you be a dear and open those curtains…don't look at me like that. The sun isn't going to hurt her."

The sound of cloth and metal hooks rustling filled the air as Megumi retorted, "Fine…but if she wakes up because of all this extra light…" Megumi left the statement to hang in the air as Kirsche chuckled and the room beyond Sakura's eyelids lit up. Sakura could just imagine Megumi shaking her head at Kirsche and her never ceasing smile, a motherly look of disapprobation on her face. "Well, I have to get back down to the guests. If you need anything, let me know."

Once it was just her and Kirsche, the older girl sighed, then all was silent and, aside from the slightest vibrations that Sakura could feel transfer through the bed, all was still. If Sakura could have, she would have opened her eyes just to find out what Kirsche was doing; instead she was forced to lie in the warm sun as if she were still sleeping. Eventually Sakura dozed, and the next time she woke up, it was to a face full of sunshine that made her rapidly blink her eyes. She still felt hot, sick, and clammy, but at least the boulders were gone.

"Kirsche," asked Sakura, her voice weak as she sought out the profile of the older pink-haired girl who was staring out the window, "what's wrong with me?"

At first the only thing to turn to Sakura was Kirsche's pupils as the rest of her eyes flickered about, almost making Sakura shiver. "Hmm?" Kirsche hummed slowly, questioningly, before she shook her head and turned to face Sakura for real, her eyes all in one piece. "Ah, yes, actually, there is a couple of things…as you said, 'wrong' with you…the first being your hand. Youko was worn out when she dealt with your hand yesterday, even if she acted like she wasn't, and that hand of yours is proof of it. Even if she's still just an apprentice, Youko knows better than to leave a cut like yours untreated. The bad news is that because of her oversight, you now have an infection. The good news is that Karura notice it quickly enough that you aren't in danger of losing life or limb over it. You'll only have to remain in bed for a little while." For the life of her, Sakura just couldn't understand why Kirsche said this so happily.

"Your hand's the cause of your fever," Kirsche continued, "but part of the reason you aren't feeling so well is that you've gone for quite a while without Natures Light." Sakura groaned, not wanting to hear another lecture about this 'Natures Light' thing again. Kirsche smiled gently, pushing a few strands of hair away from the child face. "You should be feeling better by now, though. If you hadn't already been sick you wouldn't have been affected so quickly, but…you don't want to hear about this anyhow, now, do you?"

Sakura shook her head enthusiastically against her pillow, and only then belatedly realized that the world wasn't spinning, like it had been last night, and she no longer felt nauseous. When Sakura checked her Chakra stores, she found a little more Chakra than the last time she had, but she knew it was nothing compared to how much she had had before she'd gone to bed last night. Sakura knew from past experience that, since she hadn't had lessons with Kirsche the previous night, she should have been nearly full. When she explained this to Kirsche, the young woman closed her eyes and leaned next to Sakura on her bed before speaking.

"So, you didn't try to do anything Chakra-wise after you went upstairs?" She asked, her blue eyes popping open as she looked closely at Sakura's face, as if looking to see if she were lying. Sakura shook her head silently. Kirsche nodded and then looked back out the window. "I see…so, tell me…did you have any…weird…dreams last night?" Green eyes sprang wide open as she stared at the blue eyed girl in surprise. It was as if she could read minds. Kirsche didn't seem to notice as she continued to stare out the window.

"Y-yeah," Sakura stuttered, remembering at the last moment that nodding would be pointless since Kirsche wasn't looking at her. "I had dreams about unicorns and…and my friends…that one was kind of fun…but then I dreamt of fireflies that became a moving picture of…a Gaara-lookalike that I'm friends with…I think…and I also dreamt of…" Sakura trailed off as she felt tears pooling in her eyes at the thought of her nightmare. The little girl tried to rub her tears away as she sniffled, "I dreamt of Gaara…but it wasn't really Gaara…it was Sand Gaara." Her attempts to disperse the tears failed as more came to take their place, soon overflowing to fall on her pillow.

A cool hand was placed on Sakura's forehead comfortingly. Kirsche didn't say anything until long after Sakura's tears ended. "Remember when I was teaching you about the Hoshi clan's abilities?" Kirsche asked, hooking Sakura's eyes with her own. Once again Sakura was shocked by the seemingly random question but she nodded in answer anyhow. "I did say," began the older girl, her eyes growing distant, "that sometimes people can have multiple abilities."

Sakura nodded again, and when the blue-eyed girl didn't speak right away, Sakura added timidly, "Yeah, I think you said you were a Time Walker and a…a Dream Walker?"

Kirsche nodded, "Indeed…and, from what you've said it is…likely…that at least one of your dreams last night was a Walking dream."

"Really?" Sakura asked, almost breathless with fear that the dream that she had awoken to might have been more than just a dream. "Which one? What does it mean?" Sakura questioned, her tears all but forgotten.

Kirsche sat up straight and shrugged. "I can't say without having seen them myself. They could have been scenes from the past or the present, scenes of possible futures, they could have been foretelling dreams…though I doubt that, at this point in time…or they might have been nothing but your average dream made strange by your fever. Your Chakra depletion makes it likely that you Dream Walked…but I can't be certain…you are sick, after all." Sighing, Kirsche stood up, "Tell me if you have any other such dreams…and don't fret yourself sicker than you already are over them either. A dream is just a dream, even if it's real. And unless it's about a possible future, there's nothing you can do about it."

Sakura watched as Kirsche walked over to her vanity, where all of her presents from the night before were placed; the young woman picked up one of the books and flipped it open. After a few moments of flicking through pages, Kirsche nodded, then came back to give Sakura the open book. "Here," the older girl said authoritatively, "read this chapter and the next. They should make you see why it would be better to avoid venomous animals in the future…and why proper care of injuries is necessary. Never settle for a bandage when you can have antiseptic."

"Wait," Sakura called as she realized that the older girl was about to leave her all alone. "Where are you going?"

Kirsche glanced out the window again, almost distractedly, before she answered with a small, nearly sad smile, "I need to go back to work. There's a young mother out there who needs me to distract her long enough so that when her daughter eats something she shouldn't, there will be a medic nearby to help. With any luck, that medic will still be there when the woman goes into premature labor." Without warning, Kirsche's smile brightened—though Sakura thought it looked a little forced—and the older pink-haired female chirped, "When I get back I'll teach you something that will come in handy if you ever accidentally do something with your blood right. Until then…" And then she was gone, twiddling her fingers in goodbye as she closed the door on Sakura and her first-aid book. When Sakura eventually returned to sleep, there were no dreams.

* * *

Sakura was bedridden for half a week as she fought off infection, but as her intensive reading informed her, she really was lucky. Apparently, infections had a nasty habit of maiming people, if not outright killing them (she had seen the pictures, and they weren't pretty). Sakura was thankful that she had escaped such a fate…and she was even more grateful that she had escaped being bored to death thanks to her new reading materials. In the four and a half days before the medic gave her the okay to leave her room she had read the first-aid book twice, the book on finding your ninja way three times, and had returned to struggling through 'Herbs: Healers and Killers' in-between rereading the other two.

Sakura's first instinct when she was told she could leave her room was to want to run outside and play with Youko and Shin, but Megumi would have none of that. She did allow Sakura to go outside, but only so far as the shade of the nearest tree that could be seen from the kitchen window. The Innkeeper didn't let Sakura out of her sight for the next two days. Sakura didn't understand why until Yashamaru, upon his return from his mission and having found out about her condition, explained that Megumi's reaction was only rational "After all," he said knowingly, "Mrs. Kaneko is the kind of woman whose maternal instincts go rampant at the sight of a weak child. Whenever anyone falls ill or gets injured, she takes it seriously, but when it's someone like you, Kura, who she feels is in her charge…she takes it personally."

Youko's response was to pat her on the back and say jovially, "Just give her a few days to make sure you'll survive, then she'll quit bothering you…well…at least until the next time something happens." Sakura really could have done without that last part. It wasn't that she disliked all the attention she was getting from her future sort-of-grandmother…it was just that all this attention was keeping her from going out to find her newest friend, getting to know him better, and learning his name (which she hoped would pacify Youko so that the grey-eyed girl would quit bugging her about it).

"I think," Yashamaru had added after Youko's comment, "that she feels somewhat responsible, since you disappeared while under her care, came back injured while under her care, and fell sick under her care…all without her really knowing it had happened until after the fact." He then proceeded to give Sakura the birthday present he hadn't been able to give to her at her party. The pink haired girl had thanked him, but internally she was groaning—he had gotten her one of those hat-scarf-thingies that Sakura could never figure out how to wear—and she had to wonder if his taste in fashion was really that bad, or if he had taken fashion advice from Youko.

The first chance Sakura got alone, she wound her way through town until she ended up at the large tower she had come to associate with her mysterious red-head (as Youko had come to call him). A quick glance around showed no red-heads in sight, so Sakura started wandering, apparently aimlessly, as she worked on getting herself lost (which, strangely, was a lot harder to do than one might think). When she started to see boarded up houses, she knew she was in the right place. Finding a good house, Sakura sat down on the roof with 'Herbs: Healers and Killers'. She made it through two chapters before she was utterly confused by what she was reading. Thinking that perhaps someone might have left a dictionary in one of these abandoned houses, Sakura left her book behind, sliding off the roof to a nearby low wall, and then to the ground. From there she went to her chosen house's front door, only to find that whoever had boarded up this house had gone overboard. There was no way she'd be able to get in through there so she didn't even bother trying. The back door wasn't any different.

After a lot of searching, the little child eventually found a hole in the wall that she could just barely squeeze through. Once inside, Sakura dusted off the cobwebs and grime that had collected on her clothing, then set about searching the house. She had come out in a bathroom with a very rusty-looking sink and more spiders than she could count. Shivering, Sakura dashed out of there as fast as she could. She ended up in what looked like it might have once been a living room, though there was no furniture left—including no bookcase. Avoiding piles of rubble—images of red and black scorpions dancing in her mind—Sakura searched the room for any books. Finding none, she ended up in the kitchen.

This room smelt like rotten food (Sakura avoided the fridge, guessing that was where it was coming from—besides, there wouldn't be any books in a fridge). In a drawer that hadn't wanted to open until she stuck her little hand into a crevice and pushed sideways against something that clicked, she found not a book, but a number of long, thin knives. She was about to pass these by—after all, they weren't books—but then she remembered her preferred-Gaara-look-alike. A large smile spread across Sakura's face as she realized that finally she might be of use to her new friend—they had never found many, the two times she had been with him, but the older boy had never passed by a knife without taking it.

Sakura tugged the drawer out, not wanting to handle any more sharp objects until her hand was healed, and headed back towards her hole. Right before she entered the bathroom Sakura stopped, thought about those spiders, and decided to leave the drawer of knives by the bathroom door. She'd finish searching for that dictionary first…then she would only need to pass through the webby room once. Sakura wasn't afraid of spiders like Kankuro was, but they had too many legs and eyes for her to feel comfortable around them.

Continuing down the hallway, Sakura came upon two doors, but only one would open. When it did, Sakura had to cover her nose as a terrible smell hit her like a kunai to the face. This was even worse than the fridge. But Sakura was determined. Creeping into the room, her bad hand over her nose, Sakura's eyes were caught by an intact bookshelf—and though not many, there were a few books left. She was halfway across the room before she thought to take in the rest of her surroundings; when she did, she froze. In the corner opposite the bookcase lay a mattress (but no bedstead), and on the mattress lay a big, bulging sheet. As Sakura wearily neared the strange, stinky bulge, she began to make out what looked like the outline of a fat person under the sheet.

"Hello?" Sakura called in a small voice, "Are you sleeping?" There was no reply. Sakura took a few steps closer, but the smell was getting so bad that she didn't want to move forward anymore. This person, Sakura decided, really needed a bath. "Are you alright?" Silence. "Hello!" Sakura tried to yell through her thick throat as fear started to creep into her veins. Just then a blast of sand and wind hit the building, making it groan. Her heart nearly jumped out of her throat when the wind wound its way through one of the boarded windows in the room, moving the sheet just enough to reveal long brown hair and a puffy, discolored face. Sakura had had enough. She ran out of the room screaming.

Sakura was out of the building quicker than a ninja, running and shrieking as she tried to distance herself from the horror she had left behind. How long she had been at it, Sakura didn't know, but her lungs were heaving and her throat felt raw by the time a hand grabbed her from behind. Sakura's voice came out a strangled squeak rather than a shout as she flailed at her captor. Their hold on her didn't lesson, but they didn't do anything else either. Slowly Sakura quieted down as she gulped in terrified breaths, dizzy from hyperventilation. Her terror miraculously lessened when she heard an annoyed but very familiar voice speak from behind.

"Are you done now?" It was her preferred lookalike. Sakura turned around as soon as he let her go. One of his eyebrows was twitching as he informed her that he could hear her a mile away. Sakura didn't care that he looked angry, she didn't care that he was glaring at her like she had interrupted something important, she didn't care that her dream the night before had made her want to lecture him about the proper treatment of one's elders the next time she saw him—All Sakura cared about was that finally there was someone she could latch onto. And she did. He blocked her attempt to hug him around the waist, but she just grabbed onto his arm instead, trying not to cry and not doing a very good job of it.

If Sakura had been looking, she would have seen the red-head first look shocked, and then confused, as he stared down at the pink blot of hair attached to his arm. But Sakura didn't see him look resigned to her clutches as his annoyance with her dissipated and later vanished. By the time she could bring herself to do anything other than press her face to his arm, his face had settled into a schooled look of disattachment. "Are you ready," he drawled when he caught her pinprick gaze, "to tell me what's wrong, or will you just keep wasting water?"

Fresh tears pricked in Sakura's eyes, but she did her best to answer anyways. "There was a lady…" Sakura sobbed, "…she smelled bad and wouldn't wake up….and she didn't look right!"

After a brief pause, the red-head asked calmly, as if he didn't really care, "And where was this?"

Sakura looked around, but she was truly lost—there weren't even any boarded up houses nearby. When she explained this to the older boy, she expected him to either, shrug and be on his way, or for him to get annoyed with her inability to give him a good answer. To her surprise, he looked thoughtful for a few moments before he asked, "Would you be able to recognize the place if you saw it again?"

At first Sakura said no—it was just another really well boarded up house—but then she remembered something. "My book…" she whispered as she rubbed tears from her eyes, "I left it on the roof when I went to go look for a dictionary."

"Ah," sighed the mahogany eyed boy…and for some reason, Sakura felt like the boy was relieved, though she couldn't say why as he continued, "then we should go find it." It took a little more coaxing (Sakura didn't even know the red-head could do coaxing with the attitude he had), but eventually they were jumping from roof to roof (well, the teen was jumping, Sakura was just riding piggyback), searching for one little book. It took them over an hour to find the right house, but once they found the leather-bound volume, her preferred lookalike set her down next to it on the roof. "Stay here," he ordered, then jumped down to the ground and disappeared around the corner.

He wasn't gone long before he reappeared next to her, his face blank of emotion. "How did you get in?" he asked. When Sakura's answer was 'through a hole', he said, "Show me." And so Sakura did. After looking at it, then glancing at their surroundings—which was a wall and a number of scrawny bushes—the older boy put a hand to his head, as if he had a headache. "You're lucky…" he finally stated almost tiredly, "If you'd tried to go through any of the main entrances, you'd be—" Sakura didn't understand why the boy cut himself off, but he did so with an almost worried glance at her.

Finally he shook his head and asked stonily, "Why did you go there?" Before she could reply, he added, "I understand why you were on the roof—you were lost again and was hoping someone would spot you…but what possessed you to enter an abandoned building where no one would find you if you—" Once again he cut himself off, but this time Sakura recognized the gleam in his eyes. It wasn't an angry gleam…but the one she had sometimes seen in Gaara's eyes when he was worried about her. "Never mind…" He mumbled, turning away from her…but this, Sakura couldn't obey.

"I was reading while I waited for you…but you didn't come, and I didn't know a lot of words…so I went in for a dictionary." The pink haired child answered truthfully. "I never did find one, but I did find a drawer full of knives. I pulled those out for you…but then I forgot them when…" It was Sakura's turn to lapse into silence as she remembered the puffy face. Slowly Sakura looked up into mahogany eyes as she asked hopefully, "She was just sleeping…right?"

A red eyebrow was raised. "Don't kid yourself, Brat. This place reeks of decomposition." Sakura felt her heart slip down into her stomach as the meaning of this soaked into her mind. The woman had been dead…

"Wait…" Sakura whispered as her brain started churning, "…she was covered by a sheet…neatly…almost as if…someone else…" To Sakrua's surprise, Gaara's lookalike nodded, with only the minutest emotion showing on his face— and even then, Sakura realized, he was only impressed with her insight, not the fact that they had likely just found someone who had been murdered. Sakura started shivering.

"Yeah," sighed the boy, as if this were an everyday occurrence rather than a waking nightmare, "whoever did it didn't want anyone to find out. Even without going in, I've seen signs of booby-traps—not very good ones—but enough for the likes of you, if you had tried the more conventional ways in." He sighed again, "We should go…although I would rather not…we need to go to the police and report this. It's clearly a civilian's doing and the sooner it's reported the better."

"Why don't you want to go to the police?" Sakura asked as she let him lead her to the edge of the roof, not bothering to ask about how he knew a civilian had done it.

"Leave the book," he grumped when she went to pick it up, "they might consider it as evidence…and if not, they'll get it back to you." Sakura did as she was told, but waited in silence, refusing to get on his back again until he answered her question. When he noticed, his face showed his annoyance but after a number of minutes of their silent stare down, he sighed impatiently. "I'm not supposed to be out of the house right now…now get on or I'll carry you like a sack of flour."

Sakura returned to her piggyback position, but the moment they were moving again, she asked, "Why? Are you grounded?"

For the first time that Sakura could remember, the boy chuckled. His answer, when he finally gave it, was "Something like that…" Sakura's follow-up question about why he was grounded was, eventually, answered in a much darker tone. "I was told to do something stupid…instead I did the smart thing…and now I'm…grounded…for it."

The rest of the trip passed in silence. When they got to the police station, the two men on duty at first looked angry to see Sakura's preferred red-head, but the moment he started talking about 'this brat here' having found a dead body, their attitudes changed. Before Sakura understood how it had happened, there were six more people in the building, one of which was a woman who came to take her from her friend's side.

Sakura jumped away, grabbing for her new friend's hand—he was the only one in this room that she knew for sure she could trust—and all the questioning eyes on her wasn't helping her feel any more comfortable. Her preferred lookalike shook her off, though not roughly, as another police officer came over to him, saying they needed a private word. "Like it or not," he said dispassionately as he glanced at the man standing beside him, "we separate here. They won't harm you…there are laws against that…and if you can trust anyone to stick to the stupid rules, it'd be these guys."

"Wait" Sakura called out before he could leave her behind, grasping his hand again. She wanted to tell him not to leave her, but even she could tell that that would just be a waste of breath, so instead she said, thinking of her friends, "I just remembered…I don't know your name."

The boy brushed her off and kept walking with the policeman, answering as he went, "Call me whatever…it doesn't matter. We won't know each other long, anyhow."

Sakura pursed her lips in annoyance, saying the first thing that came to her mind, "Fine, then I'll call you Lookalike!" After all, she was already calling him that in her head since he looked like Gaara.

Suddenly Lookalike stopped in his tracks and turned to glare at her. "No," stated the boy vehemently, ignoring the policeman's look.

Sakura flinched at his tone, then tried again. "Then…how about…uh…Red?" Obviously because of Red's hair.

This time a red eyebrow twitched as he intoned threateningly, "Pinky…"

Sakura flinched again…and then she wondered if he, too, had once been bullied and called names because of his looks. What else could she call him, though, if not something based off of his appearance…she knew he wouldn't like it if she called him Cranky…even though he was…and after a moment's thought, she dismissed the idea of calling him Uncle…since even though he was technically much older than her, he wouldn't know that…and from the look in his eye (she'd seen it many times in Temari's directed at Kankuro), he might hurt her if she did. But no matter how hard Sakura tried, the only thing she could think was that this boy looked like he could be Gaara's big brother…

"Ah!" Sakura gasped as the perfect 'name' came to her, "You're like a big brother…so I'll call you Aniki*."

Aniki groaned, but didn't say anything as he turned back around and continued on his way, leaving Sakura to be questioned by the overly stiff policewoman with the terror-inducing gaze.

* * *

Well, that was one long chapter. I hope you liked it. Originally the beginning part of this was going to be in the previous chapter, but it got too long, so I had to cut it…and now this one is long…I really just can't escape it, can I? Oh well…apparently the plot bunnies have been bringing out the heavy artillery, because this chapter just jumped right out of me. The last portion, especially, just seemed to come out of nowhere…I wasn't planning for it to happen just yet (or even like it did), but the plot bunnies and my fingers had other ideas.

*For those who don't know, Aniki is a term that can mean older brother, but it can also be used in reference to someone who is superior to you—especially used in the case of Yakuza…which, considering the circumstances, I thought kind of funny—and it can be used in place of a name…so it fits Sakura's needs quite well, I'd say.

I hope everyone has a great valentines day, even if you are single!

Reviews and Constructive criticism are more than welcome to the policemen (and women)'s donuts…flamers are welcome to the jail cells. Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: BriEva (well, I think this chapter pretty much answered your questions. I hope you liked it), Genuinely-Unique (I'm so glad you find it funny. When I read your review, I laughed at how you phrased things), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (I see you love the copy-and-past button), time-twilight (I thank you for your honest oppinion. There are things that need to happen before she can go back, but he will be appearing more in dreams, now), moodymel (thanks, more dreams will be coming), & chidoroppu (perhaps this chapter better informs you about the look-alike(s), if not, the next chapter certainly will) for reviewing!


	31. Interrogations

Disclaimer: Why ask when the answer is obvious?

Chapter 31: Interrogations

If Sakura had to describe what it felt like to be interrogated at the police station she could sum it up with one word: Terrifying. Without her red-headed older-brother figure around to make her feel safe, the question and answer session with the stern-faced policewoman soon degraded to a just-questions session as Sakura's fear of angry adults, added to her natural shyness, made her mute. She started shaking violently when the stern-faced woman outright frowned, her eyes narrowing in Sakura's direction. The little girl was on the verge of tears when the door opened behind her, making her jump.

Quickly Sakura spun around, hoping that Aniki had reentered the room. But he hadn't, and her heart sank as she realized who was in the doorway instead. It _was_ a red-head, but not her preferred one; it was the mean one. The moment his dark eyes landed on her, the young man glowered. When he spoke, though, it was to the woman, "There are two thieves from Ame waiting to be dealt with up front. I apprehended them in the act, but they're just civilians—no bounties." His eyes didn't leave Sakura as he asked over her head, "What is the kid in for? If she's another foreign thief our citizens might be best off petitioning to rid the village of their lot. They are bad for Suna's economy."

Sakura's gaze turned into a glare as she realized what the stupid, mean Gaara-lookalike-number-two had just accused her of. In that instant, all of her shyness and fear that had silenced her disappeared. Sakura was about to speak her mind when the stern-faced policewoman sighed. "Katsu…we don't have time for one of your lectures." The woman interjected when it looked as if the red-head was going to continue anyhow, "There's been a murder in the renovation district, Katsu. This kid and…and one other…" something about the woman's pause and how her eyes momentarily flickered towards the lookalike made Sakura think she had changed what she was about to say, "…were the ones to discover the body. I was just starting to question her about the situation when you arrived. So far I haven't found out too much." The woman sighed again, "I suppose I better deal with those thieves of yours before they find a way to escape. Stay with the girl until I get back—question her if you can manage it without terrorizing her—if not, just keep an eye on her."

Without waiting for a response, the policewoman turned around, exiting through the door left open by the Gaara-lookalike named Katsu. The moment the door closed, Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and declared angrily, "I'm not a thief!"

The man that Sakura was really starting to detest grunted—and for some reason the dissatisfied face that he made reminded her of Kankuro on a bad day. "And what were you doing in the renovation district? That place is off limits to civilians."

"I got lost and was waiting for Aniki to find me." The pink haired child answered through gritted teeth. If it was so off limits she wondered why it was so easy for her to end up there; there certainly were no warning signs or guards saying it was off limits. When she pointed this out to the (currently) Kankuro-look-and-act-alike, he only grunted again before ignoring her question for one of his own. When she answered that questions and repeated her earlier one, he once again ignored her as he asked yet more questions—always sounding as if he were condemning her.

When he practically accused her of going into the house to steal the dictionary, Sakura snapped. She knew it was wrong, she knew if her mommy or Auntie Youko found out she'd get in trouble, but she didn't care. Sakura kicked the man as hard as she could in the shin, calling him a big meanie. His response was not to double over in pain or shriek like a girl (she had actually been kind of hoping for that), but rather he swooped down, faster than a ninja, and grabbed her by the arms. He then stood up and held her above the ground at his angry-eye-level.

"You are an insubordinate chit." He spat, shaking her once when she tried to kick him again. "You will answer the questions properly and fully. You will do so without words of complaint and without attempt to withhold information. There will be no further juvenile outbursts of this sort. Do you understand?" Sakura's first response was to wiggle and flail in an attempt to escape his clutches. When it became clear that resistance was futile, Sakura crossed her arms as best she could while being held by them and returned his glare fully. In return for his disrespect, she gave him an ultimatum.

"Only if you quit being a bully!"

The young man opened his mouth, but before he got to say anything the door behind him opened and in walked the policewoman with a scowl on her face. "What did I say about terrifying the kid?" Sakura shrank back from the woman in the doorway (as far as she could, anyhow, suspended as she was in the air). Even though the woman's stern gaze wasn't pointed at her, it still somehow terrified her more than this big red-headed bully ever could. All he seemed able to manage was to make her angry. The bully named Katsu, however, didn't even bother turning around to look at the policewoman.

"She kicked me." was his blatant response.

"If she kicked you," stated a voice that did not belong to the policewoman, "it was because you did something to deserve it." Sakura tried to see around the policewoman to the owner of that familiar voice, but all she could make out were a couple of shadows. "Kura isn't the kind of girl to kick people for the fun of it." As Sakura watched, Karura squeezed her way past the policewoman to add her own glare at the big bully. If Sakura hadn't been being held aloft by the red-head, she wouldn't have noticed him twitch. She couldn't see it, but she felt it. Her captor didn't bother turning around, though, until a hand landed on his arm. "Please put down my friend, Katsu." Despite how it had been phrased, even Sakura could tell that it wasn't a request.

To Sakura's surprise, after a few moments of silence that somehow felt like a conversation without words between Sakura's captor and rescuer, the bully named Katsu grunted before setting her down. One of his hands remained like an iron clasp on her arm as he turned to face Karura fully. "Don't you usually have dance lessons around this time, Karura?" Sakura's eyes widened. Why would this bully know something like that? "You shouldn't be here. What would your parents say if they knew you were skipping class?"

"That doesn't matter, Katsu!" Snapped Karura, as if it really did matter but she just didn't want to talk about it. "How can you expect me to be at lessons? I stopped by Kirsche's stall on my way to class and the police came to get her, saying Kura was in their company. How could you expect me to leave my friend's care in the hands of people notoriously anti-foreigner—and may I add, that is largely due to your influence over them? And then when we got here Mrs. Mebuki, the only neutral person in this place, informed us Kura was down here with you, of all people. Do you know how terrified I was that we'd come down here and find you, oh, I don't know, shaking her like a rag doll." This last part, Sakura noticed, was said with extreme sarcasm and more than a hint of disappointment and anger. "It's a good thing I got one of the other police officers to distract Kirsche…what if she had come down here and seen you like this?" Karura paused, searching Katsu's emotionless face, before she sighed. "I know you don't like foreigners, but you shouldn't be treating Kura like she's a criminal. She's just a civilian child. You're better than this."

"Your girlfriend's right, you know," The policewoman said, stepping past a suddenly blushing Karura. "The kid's a witness, not a murderer. If you terrorize her like this she might not give us the information we need. You'll never become Kazekage if you allow your emotions to interfere with your work like this." The stern-faced woman 'hmphed' with disapproval, then turned her eyes back to Sakura, pinning her in place more solidly than the hand on her arm was. "And you," the woman began tersely, immediately reverting Sakura back into the little girl too petrified to speak, "don't look so frightened. Your sister will be in soon and we are only going to be asking you questions. Answers would be appreciated."

The more the policewoman glared at Sakura, her eye twitching, the more terrified the five-year-old felt—the hand with a death grip on her arm wasn't helping her calm down any, either. She might have started outright crying if Karura hadn't peeled the fingers away from her arm and then proceed to wrap her in a hug from behind. Karura's chin stayed poised on top of Sakura's head and her arms around her shoulders even after Katsu left, Kirsche entered, and the interrogation resumed. If not for the presence of Kirsche and Karura, things would not have progressed any more than they had earlier (which is to say, not at all), but with them, Sakura felt confident (or at least safe) enough to answer the woman, even when she felt that the questions were pointless. What did it matter if she had spent two days—well, three counting today—meeting up with Aniki and looking for hinges and such? It's not like that had anything to do with the rotting corpse she and he had found. When finally (a half hour later) Sakura mustered up the courage to ask (demand) why she kept being asked such unnecessary questions, the stern faced woman grimaced.

"I suppose it can't hurt to tell you, since you've already proven the point…" said the policewoman gravely, "The boy you came here with, the one you call Aniki…well, your testimony just now has probably saved him from getting into even more trouble than he already is." When she realized that no one in the room seemed to understand what she was saying, the stern-faced woman sighed.

"The current estimated time of death for our victim was around a week ago, during which time that boy has supposedly been spotted heading towards the renovation district twice, even though he's supposed to be under house arrest for disobeying direct orders. He's the only one that anyone has known of even possibly sneaking in there…until today…the fact that a civilian like you could get past those gennin set to guard the place...along with the fact that the person who claimed to have seen Sa—" The policewoman cut herself off, looking around as if she expected to find someone listening in before she continued, "—the boy you called Aniki—the fact that the gennin's family is a firm supporter of Katsu and not the boy, in a political sense…well that just complicates things. Your testimony, especially if it can be backed up by others, will save your Aniki from being the prime suspect in this case—especially since the two days you mentioned being with him before were the two days he was supposedly spotted."

Karura asked what Sakura had been wondering, if this meant Sakura's Aniki would be in the clear. "Oh no," was the policewoman's stoic answer, "he'll still be punished for breaking his house arrest—though I'm quite interested in finding out how he was able to slip past his grandmother—breaking the law is still breaking the law. You probably won't see much of him for at least a month—we'll make sure he actually does as he's told this time. However, his punishment will be nothing compared to what it would be for the charge of murdering a civilian." The policewoman shrugged, and then patted Sakura on the head, making her freeze in terror and confusion. Noticing this, the stern-faced woman gave a small smile that made Sakura's heart leap with a strange sense of familiarity. "If that kid's going to use you as an alibi," the policewoman added, her smile dropping, "he'd better make it up to you properly. I can't stand people who do things by halves." Strangely, this reminded Sakura of Nakagawa-sensei, back in Old Suna, and had the effect of making her relax, even if just a little. Maybe the two knew each other. She wouldn't get to ask, though, because the interrogation continued, and soon she forgot all about it as she was forced to recall all of the chilling details of the discolored dead lady and the boarded up, booby-traped house.

* * *

Karura sighed as she returned from her brief excursion out of the inn and found that Youko had left her own room—where Karura had left her—and was now positioned with her head pressed to the floorboards outside of Kura's room.

"What are you doing?" the blond hissed to her best friend. Youko made a shushing motion before trying to peer under the door again. Karura stepped closer, preparing to grab the girl's ear and drag her away—seriously, the girl was too old to be eavesdropping; didn't she know that wasn't what ears were meant for—but then she realized as she neared the door that the voices traveling through the wooden object were speaking in another language. Even though Karura was not trying to listen in, she could easily tell that one of the two speakers—clearly Kura—was stumbling through her words unfamiliarly. Shaking her head, Karura reached down and grabbed Youko's shirt and dragged her back to the room where they would be sleeping tonight. Once she had tossed her friend inside and the door was closed, Karura put her hands on her hips and glared down at the mahogany-haired girl sprawled on the floor. "What were you doing?"

Youko grinned up at her, unabashed. "Oh, come on. It's not like you aren't curious about Kura's so-called lessons."

Karura narrowed her indigo eyes, "Even so, what did you hope to gain by gluing your face to the floorboards? It's not like they're dancing—and even if they were, all you'd be able to see would be their feet anyhow—the gap beneath the door might be big, but it's not that big—but that's not the point. Even if you couldn't understand them, you were still eavesdropping."

The gleam in Youko's eyes at this statement stopped Karura from saying more. Youko's grin grew as she stood up and dusted herself off. "And that's where you're wrong, Karu-Chi. I happened to have positioned the metal serving tray that I brought their food up with earlier just-so against the foot of the bed so that it could act like a mirror. Admittedly it was a small tray and it's nowhere near as reflective as I would have liked and they're not always in the right place for me to see anything, but I did see—and hear—enough to get an idea of what's going on in there."

"Youko!" Karura gasped with indignation. "You're spying on your own friend—and for what? To find out that she's learning a new language? Is that really worth—"

Youko cut off Karura by loping an arm around her shoulders. "You bet it was worth it. She's not just learning a new language, they're doing something with that Kekkei Genkai Kura-Kura told us about. I don't know what it is they are doing exactly—that whole language thing—but you weren't too far off with the dancing idea…both of their eyes are blue right now and they keep waving their hands in the air. I once even saw Kirsche change the way Kura-Chi's hand was positioned. Maybe we should ask her about it later…along with if she found out her mysterious red-head's name?"

Karura shrugged her friend's arm off of her, her foot tapping with annoyance. "You will do no such thing, Youko Kaneko. It's bad enough that you spied on the girl, I will not let you interrogate her about it—she's had enough of that already today!" The grin that had stayed plastered on Youko's face throughout all of Karura's earlier admonishments fell with this last statement.

"You're right," Youko admitted as she sat heavily on her bed, "I couldn't believe it when I got home from the hospital and found out that the rumor I heard about two kids finding the scene of a murder was not only true, but that one was in fact Kura. She didn't say much about it before she went up to lessons…and I couldn't bring myself to ask when she looked like…well…like she'd seen a dead body." Flopping back on the bed, Youko said to the ceiling, "I feel so bad for her…I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like for her—we definitely can't let her sleep alone tonight." Shifting to one of her sides, Youko looked at her blond haired friend and said, more to herself than Karura, "I wonder who the other kid was and if they have anyone to sleep with tonight."

Karura glanced back at the door, torn. She had found out quite a bit today thanks to Mrs. Mebuki regarding the situation, but she wasn't sure if she was really in a position to disclose any of it. She was about to decide against it when Youko was suddenly in her face, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "You know something." was the grey-eyed girl's barefaced statement, "Tell."

Karura rubbed her arm nervously, hoping she wouldn't regret this latter. "Alright," the blond whispered, "but you have to swear not to mention anything about this to Kura—and I mean anything." The promise was immediately procured, and Karura continued, "The other person was, as you call him, Kura's mysterious red head."

Youko's eyes lit up as she half-whispered-half-squealed, "So you know who he is?" Karura nodded hesitantly. "It's not Katsu, is it?" Karura snorted at the absurdity of that thought and Youko grinned, "Yeah, I guess I already knew it wasn't your lover-boy." Youko ignored Karura's glare to ask in an excited whisper, "Well, what's his name?"

"Sasori." Karura stated, and then studied her friend's expression, finding, as she half-expected, only the smallest hint of recognition. To clarify, therefore, she added, "Does 'upstart genius' and 'the supposed solution to all my problems' ring any bells?" Apparently it did because soon Youko had grabbed her in a bear-hug and was spinning her in excited circles. Only once her feet were firmly planted back on the ground did Karura role her eyes at Youko's reaction. "It's not really something worth celebrating, Youko. Even if the two do like each other—and I can't speak to that since I haven't met the guy—that means nothing towards my situation. I marry the next Kazekage—my family is a Katsu supporter, so that's obviously who they've been shaping the marriage agreement towards…but if things ever changed and they became Sasori supporters…well, I don't think childhood crushes could stop my family from getting their way." Youko's pitying look told Karura that she understood how Sakura's crush wasn't the only one that was of little importance in light of her family's political goals.

"But this isn't about me," Karura said, deciding it was time to redirect the subject, "Kura doesn't know Sasori's name—apparently he told her to call him Aniki—but more importantly, she doesn't know what a big deal this will become if people find out who the two 'kids' from the rumors were. Mrs. Mebuki said today that, if not for Kura's statement, Sasori would be suspected of being the murderer because of something one of Katsu's supporters claimed…"

Youko flinched and then grimaced. "Yeek…that is bad. I try to stay out of politics…but even I know that the division between the two future-Kazekage factions has been causing issues." Karura snorted at her friend's understatement. "If news gets out…" Youko continued seriously, her eyes narrowing as the gravity of the situation hit home, "…half of Suna's going to be saying Kura had something to do with the murder—even if it's just covering up for that upstart genius—and the other half will retaliate against the slander of their oh-so-perfect child prodigy…and Kura's bound to get dragged into that as well." Youko shivered while her mind worked to process what Karura had figured out the moment she had seen Katsu with Kura. "At best Kura's going to be made very uncomfortable and at worst…there might be a blood-bath. Someone might try to kill her!"

Karura nodded in disheartened agreement and decided not to add that, if Sasori had a crush on Kura, it wasn't just Kura's blood that could end up being spilled. According to Mrs. Mebuki, Sasori was notoriously unobservant of laws he felt hindered him in doing the 'right' thing—even if it meant killing someone. All of this flew through Karura's head in the blink of an eye, but all that she said to Youko was, "Indeed…that is why I asked Mrs. Mebuki to keep the details classified. Thankfully she stays out of politics just like you Kaneko's do—she'll keep the police quiet…and I already had a talk with Katsu. I love him, I really do, but sometimes he takes this whole 'protect the village' thing too seriously."

"Wait," Youko interjected, her face showing confusion, "what's lover-boy got to do with this?" Karura rubbed her arm as she glanced back at the door—still no sign of Kura. As the blond haired preteen settled on the bed to explain, she briefly wondered if she should have just kept her mouth closed.

* * *

The month following the discovery of the dead body passed slowly for Sakura. Part of this was because Aniki couldn't play with her and because she kept being called in to the police office to answer more questions—something she absolutely dreaded, even if Mrs. Mebuki seemed less and less scary each time Sakura went to speak to her (as it turned out, she was Nakagawa-sensei's mother, which explained the similarities). One day when she was called in, Sakura and Megumi (who never let Sakura go anywhere alone anymore), came to the police station only to find that instead of the practically empty building that Sakura was used to (apparently there was little civilian crime in ninja villages), there was a large crowd. From what Sakura could hear—it was an angry gathering.

To Sakura it appeared that the moment Megumi realized that they would have to go through the mob in order to reach the station, she decided it would be better to not meet with the policewoman today. Sakura hadn't protested when the woman turned back—her fear of angry adults once again swaying her in favor of cowardice—but she did turn back to look and listen when she heard Mrs. Mebuki, who apparently was the second-in-command of the police force, start addressing the crowd. The little girl didn't catch everything, but one thing that stood out to her as Megumi quickly dragged her away, was when, in answer to a question Sakura didn't hear, Mebuki said, "…most certainly not! No matter the circumstances, the law is the law. The identity of minors involved in the investigation will not be revealed. Aside from what has already been released, that two children under the age of twelve are witnesses, there will be no other…"

Sakura didn't get to hear the rest as first the crowd roared and then Megumi had pulled her out of earshot. It wouldn't be until later that day, when a police officer came to the inn to speak with her that Sakura found out why there had been a mob. As it turned out, a second body had been found—this one only a few days old. She also found out, much to her relief, that Aniki was no longer being suspected of murder for two reasons—one, the police had found witnesses who had seen her and Aniki together, thus backing up Sakura's testimony; and two, the police (and apparently ninja as well) had been keeping a constant eye on Aniki to make sure he didn't break his house arrest again, and so they were a hundred percent sure that this second body could not have been his doing.

The police then asked the little girl to keep a low profile—for her own safety. This was the cause of the larger part of Sakura's slow month, since it gave Megumi a reason to keep her tethered to the inn. Sakura was not allowed to go out and explore on her own, and even when Megumi let her leave the inn (which meant she had to be leaving with someone Megumi trusted), she still was encouraged to not go wandering. Megumi had explained her reasoning to Sakura ("There's a murderer going around, it's just not safe") and so the pink haired child didn't disobey, or even hold it against the overly protective woman, but it did have the result of leaving her bored more often than not—especially since both sets of twins usually didn't have free time until the evening.

Sakura's only escape from this boredom, therefore, was reading, practicing the Jutsu that Kirsche had been teaching her (which strangely had more to do with undoing the Hoshi Jutsu rather than doing them), and spending time with Megumi. During this time, she learned quite a bit, everything from how to set broken bones to how to release people and objects from the kind of Jutsu Kirsche had used when they first met, the kind that had frozen the bad guys in place. She even learned how to cook from Megumi. At first her food ended up burnt and inedible—it had been so bad that the first time this happened, Sakura had gone to bed crying, wondering if she would ever be any good. The next morning she woke up feeling more confident than she had when she went to bed thanks to a blurry dream where she had made something for Gaara, and he had loved it. From that day on she worked hard to improve.

The first time she thought she had made something that was actually good she rushed to give it to Youko and Shin to try, and got mixed reviews. After having eaten some, Youko had crossed her arms and said it was alright, but then she quickly excused herself and wasn't seen again until dinner time. Shin had eaten it all—along with the portion Youko had left behind—claiming it was one of the best things he had ever had. Sakura had been extremely pleased; that is, until she realized that with Megumi as a mother, there was no way what Shin said could be true. Megumi was an artist in the kitchen, even when she was making enough food to feed the entire Inn—Sakura knew that there was no way her measly newly-learned skills could ever be compared, and because of that, as the day progressed, she started to doubt if her food had really been any good at all…or if everyone was just too nice to tell her otherwise.

When Sakura brought this up to Karura the next day as they walked to older girl's dance practice, the sandy-haired girl's eyes widened, and then she shook her head to the side, as if she found something disappointing or displeasing. When the indigo-eyed girl realized Sakura was looking at her inquisitively, the blond sighed and rubbed one of her arms. "It's…complicated. Even though I wasn't there…I can pretty much guess what was going on. Youko was probably jealous—her cooking attempts, especially anything to do with frying pans, don't tend to end well." Sakura nodded, a small smile crossing her face when she remembered the frying pan incident on her birthday (Youko never did explain how she was able to irreversibly destroy said cooking utensil. Megumi had had to buy a new one).

Sakura's smile stayed on her face until she recalled Shin's overpraise of her own cooking; then it fell. Looking at the ground, Sakura asked, "But what about Shin?" With her eyes lowered, the pink haired child traced the patterns left in the dirt by previous passersby as she continued, "There's no way the food was that good…so why would he lie? He always tells Youko the truth when her food doesn't turn out well." Because her eyes were cast down, Sakura completely missed the look that said that Karura was warring with herself over what to say and what not to say.

Sakura didn't look up to Karura until the girl sighed loudly, "That boy…" This time Sakura did witness Karura role her indigo eyes before locking them on Sakura's pinprick blue ones, which clearly showed the younger girl's desire for an understanding of the situation. "You really shouldn't worry too much about that. I don't think he was lying." At this point Karura broke eye contact as she looked at the sky and said while rubbing her arm some more, "…I…uh…don't know why…but…even though he's bias—er…um…I'm sure Shin told you what he felt was true." After a long pause that almost felt awkward, Karura looked back at Sakura and added, "He's the kind of guy who says what he means…so whatever his reasons…he really thought your cooking was that good. So I guess…don't think too much of it." After that, the conversation somehow took a turn towards the surprising revelation that Sakura's Aniki was much younger than she had first surmised and then moved on to Youko's influence over Yashamaru's sense of fashion and finally ended with the three new tenants that had moved into the room next to Sakura's. And thus all thoughts about Shin's strange behavior were forgotten by the time the Sakura and her indigo-eyed friend reached the ballet studio…

…just as Karura had planned.

* * *

And that's that! I hope you all liked this chapter…and congratulations to all those who had been able to guess before now that Sakura's preferred Gaara-lookalike-number-one was none other than Sasori (not that Sakura knows that's Aniki's name)…and for those who weren't able to (or decided not to) guess, well, now you know! You should also, by now, pretty much know who the second Gaara-lookalike is…I'm not sure if I'll ever address who he is any more directly than I already have, though, so if you can't figure it out based on that…well…I don't know what to tell you.

I've gotten most of the next chapter written, so I'll likely update in two weeks (around March 7th). All these wonderful reviews have really helped my muse (r at least, they have summoned the plot bunnies to gnaw on my mind).

This chapter was full of information…and for those of you who were wondering if the murder thing was going to be a big deal or just a passing one…well, this chapter should give you a good idea about that. Also, I suppose that since this is a chapter full of information (and I got so many lovely reviews) that I might as well tell you that soon some characters that most people probably dismissed as unimportant to the main plot will be reappearing. Their reappearance may or may not have something to do with the murder mystery.

Well, now that I've given you yet another mystery to dwell on, I suppose I ought to move on and say that reviews and constructive criticism will likely be given the answers to their questions, whereas flamers shall be left to the mob! Now, let's see that _pretty list_!

Thanks to: time-twilight (thank you for your ideas. I have to finish this story before I think about starting another multi-chapter story, though), general zargon (It's good to hear from you again. This chapter should sort-of answer your questions), BriEva (As always, thanks for your prompt response; some of your questions should have been answered by this chapter. I don't know about Chiyo yet, at least not for while they are in the past, though she will most certainly appear once Sakura return to her own time. As to Chakra reserves, that's pretty much a given. Oh, and as to your statements on Shin...all I can say is, you do have a good idea of my mind works), moodymel (yes, reviews really do help feed my muse...now if only reviews could make school less demanding of my time), Skadi Jotunn (It's good to hear from someone from Brazil, and hugs back from Nebraska (USA). I'm glad to hear that I might have changed your opinion about Sasori. I've always felt that Sasori as a child was lonely and that he became even more lonely because his way of dealing with the loneliness was to push everyone away from him. Obviously, this hasn't worked quite so well on Sakura. I have thought about making a story—most likely a one-shot—that is Sasori-Sakura based, but the ideas I have are for an AU, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to writing it or if people would even like it. There's actually a picture that was based off of that idea up on my Deviant ART account if you want to see it) Genuinely-Unique (I know what you mean about Sasori and his escapee tendencies...I thought that would fit his personality perfectly. Also, I will try to put as much Sasori moments in as I can), & Random k (Nice hearing from you again. Your question about the importance of the murder should have been answered above) for reviewing!


	32. One Heck of a Day

Disclaimer: If only, if only…

Chapter 32: One Heck of a Day

_Sakura knew she was dreaming, if only because the darkness was being lit by the now-familiar little fireflies, which were busy forming a picture. A little boy, maybe six-years-old, sat on the floor of his room, staring intently at a picture fame he was holding in his hands (the contents of which Sakura couldn't make out due to the angle). For a few moments, Sakura thought this little boy was a slightly-older version of Gaara, but the longer Sakura watched the boy stare at the photo, the more differences she could make out. The two were undoubtedly similar, but being as close in age to each other as this boy and Gaara were, it was easier to compare them than it was to compare Sakura's two Gaara-lookalikes to Gaara. Perhaps the most obvious difference, though, was the lack of Gaara's blaring black rings around the boy's eyes._

_As Sakura watched the unknown boy caress the photo with a finger, she realized that he was shaking. If the little pink haired child could move, she would have gone to hug him, but instead she stayed frozen in place, forced to watch on as the boy's face started to express the sadness his actions had already related to Sakura. And then he spoke. Sakura couldn't understand the words spoken—they sounded as if they were being spoken halfway across the building rather than right in front of her—but she didn't need to hear words to understand what he was saying. She had seen her mommy act the same way the week after her birthday…the day, Sakura knew, Haruko had been informed that her brother had died protecting his village._

_As Sakura watched helplessly, the boy started shaking even harder, his voice wavering in a way that made her think he was asking 'why'. The little boy was about to start outright crying when a door opened behind him and in walked a cautious old woman. Sakura recognized her as the grandmother form her previous dream about Aniki. The woman spoke gently, making the boy—a young Aniki, Sakura realized—jump in surprise. Before he turned around, Young-Aniki swiped at his eyes, then he stood up, leaving the photo on the ground. He said something in return to his grandmother—his voice sounding defensive. His grandmother looked slightly taken aback, but then she moved towards him, speaking calmingly, her arms outstretched as if to hug him. And at first, it looked as if she were going to succeed. _

_But when the old woman said something—that comforting tone still prominent, tinged with perhaps a bit of wistfulness—and Young-Aniki hit her hand away from himself and took a step back. For reasons that Sakura couldn't comprehend, he was glaring at his grandmother as he spoke in a quiet yet clearly angry voice. Once again, even though she couldn't actually understand his words, Sakura felt like she knew what he was saying…or more to the point, what he was calling his grandmother…'Liar'. Sakura had no clue why she felt this way, but as the boy's voice grew in volume and anger, the pink haired child became assured in her reasoning. He was hurt and angry and, for whatever reason, didn't believe what his grandmother was telling him. Sakura could only watch helplessly as, with the woman's latest attempt to comfort her grandchild, Young-Aniki pulled a kunai out of his pocket and pointed it at her. _

_Sakura was shocked at his actions, and so apparently was his grandmother. Very slowly she backed away. Once in the doorway, she spoke once more before she slipped away. Young-Aniki slammed the door shut after her. The closure of the door signaled the closure of the dream, as the little fireflies scattered, leaving nothing but darkness to remain until their return an unknowable amount of time later. It was the same room again, but this time with a slightly-older version of Aniki, although he was still much younger than the Aniki Sakura knew. This time there were two life-sized puppets beside him—she knew they were puppets because he was working to put an arm on one of them…and neither of them had faces yet. In the background Sakura could see the old woman watching him through a crack in the door. Her eyes looked sad, but this time she didn't come in._

* * *

For the fifth day in a row Sakura followed Kirsche to her stand at the market. After helping the older pink haired girl set up for the day, Sakura ran to the shade of the large tower she had come to associate with Aniki. This was the only place left where Sakura thought she had any chance of meeting up with the older boy now that she knew she wasn't supposed to go into the boarded up areas. Mrs. Mebuki had said that his house arrest should end after about a month, and a month to the day of her having said that had passed five days ago. There was still no sign of the red-head.

Sitting down in the shade, Sakura did what she had done for the past four days; she pulled out two books from the bag she had taken to carrying around everywhere with her and sat down with them to read. The main focus of Sakura's attentions was 'Herbs: Healers and Killers', but her second book, a dictionary, was a constant companion that Sakura was continuously grateful for. With its help, over the past month she had made it three-fourths of the way through the difficult herb book and she couldn't wait to finish it. Although she really doubted it would ever happen, Sakura hoped that when she did finish the book, Aniki would praise her. If asked, she wouldn't have been able to explain why getting his approval meant so much to her. She hadn't seen him in over a month, and usually such a long absence would have made the near-stranger fade in her memories…but it hadn't…perhaps because of her dreams.

A few times a week she was dreaming. Sometimes they were dreams in black and white of New Suna and other days she might dream in blurry color of Old Suna or even full, clear colored dreams of an even older New Suna. She once even had a dream about her farther (or at least the man she had originally been told was her father) and his genin team. She wasn't sure how many of them were normal dreams and how many of these dreams were Walking Dreams, as Kirsche called them, depictions of what was-is-and-could-be, but it didn't really matter to her. The point was that they made her feel so much more connected to everyone—Aniki, Gaara, her parental figures—and so, even though she couldn't see them in person, she didn't miss them as she would have otherwise. But she did miss them.

Thankfully (at least for Gaara and her parents), if the little red marks on her leg were any indication, she would be seeing them again sooner rather than later. As with her book, about three-fourths of the red marks that Kirsche said proved she had awoken her Kekkei Genkai had dulled to look like normal scar tissue, and once the last one faded, she knew she would be homeward-bound. Until then, though Sakura decided that her goal for herself was to make Aniki acknowledge her as a friend. Why? Because partially through her own experiences and partially through her dreams Sakura had determined that, like Gaara, Aniki needed a friend, and she was just the girl for the job. Unlike Gaara, though, Aniki wasn't quite as open to the idea. That was alright with her, though; Sakura was up for the challenge.

First, however, she needed Aniki to find her (because her finding him never seemed to work out). And so Sakura dutifully sat and read next to the one building she knew both she and Aniki were connected to. She was learning about something called terpenoids when a shadow fell over her, jerking her out of her concentration.

"Wha-ah?" Sakura gasped out, her mind momentarily blank of anything outside of the list of the top 100 terpenoid compounds with medicinal uses. As she blinked, looking up at the shadowy figure, Sakura's mind cleared enough to realize two things: there was a person standing in front of her, and the sun had moved since she'd last looked up from her book. Because of the latter, the person before her was unidentifiable, their face all in shadows while the sun glared brightly right behind their head. If Sakura's Eyes hadn't been activated, she would have had to blink sun sports out of her eyes, but as Kirsche had once told her, the sun held no danger for their Hoshi eyes—she still had to squint, though, to try to make out the face of the person looming over her.

Before Sakura could determine the person's identity beyond not being Aniki, the person bent down closer to her face with a grin. "You got your nose in a book again!" It was a little girl—Sakura's mind raced to find the name that fit the familiar face as the brown haired girl continued, "Isn't that boring?" Keiko: that was the pigtailed girl's name. Sakura was about to answer the excitable girl's question when said girl made a face, "Books should stay in school, where they belong." And with that, Keiko grabbed her arm, "Come on, let's play!" Sakura was barely given time enough to tuck her books back in her bag before the girl was dragging her away from the building. She didn't get to tell Kirsche where she would be (as Megumi had made her promise to do before she left the inn), she didn't get to ask why Keiko had singled her out (although she eventually found that out when the expressive child complained about all her friends being too busy studying for tomorrows test to play), and she most certainly wasn't given time to explain that she was supposed to be waiting for Aniki (every time she tried, Keiko interrupted her).

And so, for the second time that Sakura could remember, a girl who she barely knew manipulated her into a game of tag/hide-and-seek/rescue-the-princess that seemed to have no end and no boundaries. Before Sakura knew what was going on, the two of them had left the market behind. They scrambled up trees, 'swam' through sandboxes, ran through stores and houses (Sakura threw an apology over her shoulder the one time the homeowner seemed to object to their presence as Keiko dragged her forward in their 'escape from the evil dragon'—everyone else seemed accustomed to having little girls, or at least little Keiko's, barreling through their buildings unannounced) and generally participated in a bunch of other activities that Keiko termed 'more interesting than books'. Only once did Sakura refuse to follow where Keiko was leading, and that was when the charismatic girl tried to get her to pull a prank on some of her aunts (apparently she had eight…or at least she said she thought she had eight…there might have been a ninth one in there somewhere, she claimed, or maybe ten…she could never keep them all straight).

* * *

The two girls raced around town for hours without stop—Keiko apparently had an unending supply of energy that Sakura envied. The pink haired child had almost worked up the courage to ask if they could take a break and rest when Keiko halted without warning, making Sakura nearly run into her.

"Wha—?" Before Sakura could get anymore of her question out, the brown haired girl had grabbed her arm and was pulling her with great hast into the shadow of two buildings. Sakura almost tried to ask again, but then she noticed the group of older children pointing in their direction behind her and Kekio. At that moment survival instincts kicked in along with Sakura's learned fear of bullies, and both girls were racing through the back roads. Somehow the experience of running through twists and turns in unfamiliar alleyways remind Sakura of her first time getting lost in New Suna and she couldn't help but smile despite the sound of shouts coming from behind them.

Sakura blinked the mental image of Aniki finding her in the past from her eyes, only to find that Keiko had disappeared. Suddenly Sakura's heart leapt in fear. She was alone. What was she going to do? How would she—a hand grabbing her and dragging her into the shadow of a doorway broke off her thoughts. Keiko put a hand over her mouth before she could scream in fright, then motioned for her to follow her silently. Hidden behind a trashcan was a hole in the wall that Sakura could barely squeeze through (she just knew she'd have scrapes on her side when she got home that night) that led to someone's well-tended backyard. From there, Keiko led her to what looked like a normal brick patio. When Keiko hit one of the largest squares that made up the patio, though, it moved enough for her to reach under and push it to the side, leaving behind a gaping hole.

Without speaking, Keiko told Sakura to get in the hole (which turned out to be a cellar…or a tunnel…or, as Keiko would later tell her, both) and then followed after her, pulling the brick back in place as she did so. It was pitch black in the cellar, and Sakura would have been more than happy to have stood still and waited out the bullies, but Keiko had other ideas. Sakura squeaked when she felt something touch her hand, but Keiko quickly shushed her, then started to slowly lead her through the dark (Sakura dearly hoped the girl knew where she was going). What felt like hours passed before Keiko whispered, "I think we're far enough now, now I just need to find another exit…there's got to be one around here somewhere…Ah, here we go." After a grunt, light spilled in, showing Sakura in perfect detail the opening in the wall beside Keiko, who was covering her eyes and hissing in pain.

Sakura's pigtailed leader turned her back on the hole and rubbed her eyes before squinting at Sakura. "How can your eyes not be hurting?" the ever vocal girl questioned, but then immediately added, "Doesn't matter. Could you check to make sure no one is out there?" Sakura nodded and hesitantly did so. What she found was that the hole in the wall was behind a cupboard door in a laundry room. The room was empty. "Is it clear?" asked Keiko in a whisper as she neared the opening. Sakura nodded, then helped the girl out of the fake cupboard.

"Where are we?" Sakura asked, looking around the windowless room illuminated by many lights.

"Underground, I'd say," was Keiko's not-so-reassuring answer, "don't know where exactly. I've never been out this far before." Snooping around the room, Keiko explained before Sakura could ask, "I accidentally found the tunnels about a year ago when I was hiding from Ryuu. Most of the time I just move from one place to the next closest exit, then slip back out and be on my way, but lately Ryuu and his crowd have been keeping an eye out for me, and they're everywhere…sorry for dragging you into this, by the way."

After a few moments of hesitation, Sakura asked nearly inaudibly, "Why…is this Ryuu person after you?"

Keiko shrugged and answered equally quietly, "This time, you mean? I think he's still angry at me for the bucket-over-the-door trick he fell for yesterday. Or maybe it's because I replaced his Kunai with chopsticks last week. Or I suppose it could also be—" whatever else it might have been, Sakura didn't get to find out. A loud sound, like something heavy falling to the ground, sounded overhead. Both Sakura and Keiko froze. A shared glance between the two of them said what both of them had already figured out: someone was in the house.

Looking around fearfully, Sakura whispered, "Should we hide?"

Keiko shook her head, and then motioned for Sakura to follow her as the brunet pushed the laundry door open enough to see around it. "Nah," the brave girl whispered when Sakura was close enough to hear, "not yet anyhow. Let's see who it is. I know a lot of people. Come on." And with that familiar calling, the brunet slipped into the dark hallway and tiptoed to a nearby stairwell. Although Sakura was terrified—she knew it was wrong to be in someone else's house uninvited, and she had had her share of enough angry adults lately—she still followed the girl who seemed so sure of herself up the stairs and around a corner. When Keiko stopped, so did she.

The two little girls peered around a corner. The hallway was void of more than just lighting, but before they could enter it, they heard a voice carrying from a room farther down the hall. "What do I do?" The voice asked frantically. "What do I do? I didn't mean to…I really didn't…oh, I should have listened…and now I've done it again…oh, what do I do?" Sakura and Keiko exchanged glances that asked: Was the man talking to himself? Either he was, or the person he was speaking to was giving him the silent treatment, which, given his current behavior, didn't seem likely.

The man started speaking again, "Oh, what should I do? They're all over the place…at least they're done here…but what if they come back later? If they find you they might find the tunnels…" The man kept speaking, but Sakura stopped hearing him as her mind caught on the 'you' of before. Was there someone else there? But no one had said anything in response yet, and if there really was someone there, surely they would have said something by now. And what was he saying about the tunnels? Had he entered this house through them rather than the front door? Was that why the laundry room's lights had been on when they'd come through the cupboard? Sakura didn't have an answer—or at least not a good one—when she realized the man was moving their way. Without thinking, Sakura grabbed Keiko and dragged her back towards a door on their right. As soon as they were through and the door closed, Sakura leaned her head against the wooden door and sighed in relief, glad that here, at least, there was some light, even if there was a lingering not-so-pleasant scent in the air.

When Sakura turned around, she realized they were in a kitchen, but before she could notice much more than that, her attention was drawn to Keiko, who was humming thoughtfully. The brunet was also, she realized, mumbling under her breath that the voice sounded familiar. Sakura put her finger to her lips in a reminder to Keiko that it still wasn't safe to speak, but the girl kept mumbling something like 'if only I could see his face'. Sakura shrugged, wishing she had the courage to be more assertive. Instead of trying to reason with the unreasonable Keiko, Sakura returned her attention back to their new hiding spot. The reason for the light being present in the room when it hadn't been present in the hall became clear immediately. The kitchen had windows, and thus the natural light filling the room through the slots in the boards… Sakura's eyes widened.

Why were the windows boarded?

When Sakura's eyes managed to take in the counter space just below the window, specifically the area with a single missing drawer just to the left of said window, she froze as terror stole all the blood from her face. She knew that missing drawer. She knew this kitchen. She knew this house. They were in the renovation district—the one where civilians weren't supposed to go.

Even worse, they were in the house of the dead lady.

Sakura swiveled around, suddenly finding the drive within herself to assertively tell Keiko that they had to get away quickly—only to find that the brunet was already halfway out the kitchen door. Sakura grabbed the girl's arm, pulling her back a step as she tried to whisper out a warning. But Keiko interrupted her, no longer whispering, "I think I know who it is! Come one!" Before Sakura could do anything about it, the tables were turned and Keiko was grabbing her arm…and pulling her towards the voice. A man was at the end of the hallway in an open doorway, half bent over, as if he were puling something heavy.

Keiko was speaking before Sakura could stop her, "Mr. Kato! Hello!" The man jumped, dropping whatever he was dragging to look at them. In that instant, Sakura realized she, too, recognized the man. This was the baker man who had run into her over a month ago when he didn't like the fortune that Kirsche had told him.

Suddenly Sakura had a bad feeling she knew exactly what Kirsche had been trying to tell the man—and it wasn't anything to do with asking forgiveness for a lovers quarrel like the twins had thought—but rather for murder. Why hadn't Kirsche said anything about it to the police? She might not have been able to save the first victim, but still…it certainly would have saved Sakura and Keiko from this predicament. It didn't take Sakura's quick mind long, though, to figure out why. Even if Kirsche had said anything, who would have believed her?

The baker's jittery voice broke Sakura out of her depressing thoughts, "Wh-who? Ah—oh, it's one of the Akai girls, isn't it?" His voice was pitched low, and he spoke quietly as if he feared being overheard in this abandoned place. "How did you—I—I guess it doesn't matter," the weak laugh Sakura heard made her shudder, though Keiko seemed completely unaffected, "why don't you and your, uh, friend come over here? I—ah—have something for—"

Sakura didn't let the man finish. Before he promised something that Sakura was sure would entice Keiko, something that wouldn't end well for either of them, she was pulling the girl down the hall—not towards the staircase and thus the tunnel, where they would be trapped with a man who clearly knew the tunnel system better than Keiko, but rather towards the bathroom she knew should be just a bit further away. If only they could get through the hole in the wall—the one through which she had originally entered the house—then they would be safe. There was no way the grown man would be able to fit through the hole and surely the doors to the house were still boarded. Sakura refused to think about what would happen if they weren't.

"Run!" Sakura yelled, not bothering to waste breath explaining why. At first the brunet fought her but then something—Sakura guessed the outraged look on the man's face—made Keiko change her mind. She ran, but unlike before, it was without confidence. Keiko was lost, in more ways than one, and if not for Sakura's firm grip on her hand guiding her along her path, she might have run right into a wall. As it was, the both of them did trip over something in their way right before their destination—something that clattered when they hit it. The man was almost upon them. Scrambling back to her feet, Sakura threw the bathroom door open and pushed Keiko inside. "Under the sink! Hurry!"

Glancing back, Sakura realized something horrible. The man was only a few yards away, and gaining fast. Maybe Keiko would have time to escape, but he would catch Sakura before she could even make it under the sink. In that instant, an instant in which Sakura unintentionally froze, she became conscious of something else. The clanking noise from when she tripped was due to knives. She and Keiko had run into the drawer she had placed by the bathroom a month ago, back when she was planning to give them to Aniki. It was then that hope dawned on Sakura.

That which had tripped them up, Sakura realized, might yet be their saving grace.

Sakura didn't have any more time to think. A moment later the bathroom door behind her was closed and she was holding a knife nearly as long as her arm with both hands, as if it were a sword. Her hands were shaking, but Sakura refused to let her fear make her turn around and run. Not only did she know that was a sure way to end up dead, but she also knew it would go against everything she stood for. After all, didn't she want to become a ninja in order to protect Gaara, her friend? Even if Keiko wasn't Gaara, she was her friend, and she deserved to be protected. And even though Sakura knew she was not a ninja yet—she had neither the skills nor the training, even if she had read a book about finding your ninja way—and she knew she would have no chance against a ninja just now...she still held her ground. She was no ninja, but neither was the man barreling down towards her.

The baker halted just beyond her reach, looking her and her makeshift weapon over. Slowly a sickening grin spread across his face.

* * *

Dun, dun, dunnnnn! Yep, I've decided to leave things at a cliff hanger! I bet very few, if any of you, were expecting this kind of thing to occur...but I did tell you last time that previously mentioned characters would be reappearing with big roles. Also, sorry for updating a week later than I planed, but between review number and the fact that I had to write a big paper and prepare for a test...my time was not exactly my own.

Once again I'll try to update in two weeks (around March 28th). You would think that because I'll be on spring break soon that I would have more time to write, but I'm not sure that I will because over half the people at one of my jobs have asked off for spring break, and so I'll be working a boat load of hours filling in for them. If I can, and if I get enough reviews, I'll update earlier.

Anyhow, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to some fresh baked bread…flamers are welcome to the baker…now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: BriEva (You are right that the vibe between Sasori and Sakura is more sibling-like than romantic...however, you have to remember that Youko A, is a dreamer, and B, hasn't seen the two of them interact, she's only heard of them. As to Katsu, I'm not sure how much of his back-story I'm going to go into, but I guess the idea is he isn't always a jerk...Sakura just happens to see the worst side of him. You'll have to wait to find out if there will be any family reunions...and you'll also have to wait to see if Sakura 'shows off' any of her Hoshi techniques), konoha kid (I don't know exactly how long it will be before she returns, certain things need to happen before she can, but the story is getting closer to that point. As to how this will effect Sakura's time, well, her past will remain unchanged, however her future is a blank slate. All I can tell you about her future is that it won't be cannon), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (do you think cliff hangers are good for getting reviews too? If you're not getting alerts, you might want to email the site about it.), & moodymel (thanks, and I like their friendship too) for reviewing!


	33. Not so bad

Disclaimer: If I owned, you would actually know something about the main female character's family and background (aside from just that fact that she was bullied as a child).

Chapter 33: Not so bad (as it could be)

_The baker halted just beyond her reach, looking her and her makeshift weapon over. Slowly a sickening grin spread across his face._

Sakura gulped, her mouth suddenly dry as she raised the knife in her hands. "St-st-stay away!" Her voice was too squeaky to sound intimidating—so instead of putting her hope on that, she placed her faith in the long knife with the serrated edges between the two of them. Swishing it around threateningly, Sakura tried to buy time for Keiko, at least, to escape. To her horror, the man chuckled and took a step forward. Sakura instinctively took a step back, brandishing her knife again. "I—I mean it! I—I'll hurt you." Even to her it sound like she was about to cry.

"Oh, I believe you," the man sneered as he took another step closer, forcing Sakura back yet another step, "but a bread knife ," another step forward, another step back—this time Sakura felt the doorframe prod her spine—any farther and she'd be in the bathroom, "well, that's not so scary," finished the man. Sakura momentarily thought about making a dash for it now that she was so near the hole and escape—she desired to do so more than anything—but then she froze as she realized why the man hadn't tried to hurt her yet. He had made her back up to remove the knives from her reach.

A moment too late, Sakura took two steps forward and tried to cut him with the long knife in her hand. He blocked her inexperienced blow with the swipe of a different knife. This one wasn't serrated and came to a very sharp point. "Now this," the creepy man said with a terrifying grin, "this is a good knife." This time when the man hit her blade with his, it was with enough strength to make her nearly drop it; the second hit succeeded where the first had failed. Sakura's eyes darted around, looking for an opening as she held her sore hands to her chest. Suddenly the man lunged forward. In her attempt to escape, Sakura tripped over her own feet and fell backwards, her eyes spinning with the movement as she tried to never let the man's knife leave her sight.

Without thinking, as she fell, Sakura flung her hands above her with all her energy as she saw the knife hit the wooden doorway above where her head now was. Perhaps she had done so instinctually to protect herself from the man's next blow, or perhaps she had done it to push her attacker away, but whatever the reason, her hands flew up towards the knife her eyes were glued on and she felt Chakra surge out of her. When Sakura hit the ground, she saw the man jerk back on the knife that now was slightly embedded in the doorway, and to his surprise, it didn't budge. His weight should have been more than enough to free the blade, but Sakura knew it was futile, just as she knew his attempts now to release the knife would be as well; the opaque glow surrounding both knife and hand told her so.

Sakura stared up from the ground, frozen in place as she realized that somehow, without having ever been taught, she had used a Hoshi Jutsu to stop the man from hurting her. Relief and exhaustion were just starting to set in when the angry man turned to her, his eyes wild. Before Sakura could get away, the man kicked her against the doorway with a sickening crack, then pinned her there with his boot on her diaphragm. One half of his face lifted in a twisted grin as he said, "I'll kill you." Sakura thought she saw a flash behind him, but she didn't have time to ponder it when she realized that the baker was pulling out a pocketknife with his free hand. Sakura's eyes remained glued to that blade as her world started to tunnel. She couldn't breathe. The last thing she heard before she fainted was: "I'll kill you just like all the others—" After that there was only the strange feeling of something warm and wet hitting her face…and then nothing. Nothing but darkness.

* * *

_At first there was just Sakura in the darkness, sitting there with her true, five-year-old appearance. And as she sat there, she wondered if she was dead. Strangely, she didn't feel afraid—perhaps because she knew Keiko had been able to escape. Keiko would get the police, and the bad man would be stopped. Sakura kept thinking this until someone approached her in the darkness. The moment the man with the knife stepped up to her, slashing at her, Sakura screamed. Now she was afraid. "It's your fault!" the baker was shouting as his knife passed through her. Sakura's scream ended as quickly as it had begun; the knife hadn't hurt her. Even knowing this, the five-year-old still flinched when the irate man tried to slice her again._

"_It's your fault!" he repeated, trying to cut her again and again without any luck. "Why? Why does everything bad happen to me?" Sakura had no clue what the man was talking about, but now that she knew he couldn't hurt her, she simply settled back into her sitting position to watch and listen, distantly wondering if she was really dead, or if she was merely dreaming. _

"_It's not my fault she lied!" the man continued desperately as his knife passed through her harmlessly, "It's not my fault he found out! I didn't mean to do it, but they asked for it! I hate you! I hate them! Why? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't things have just gone right? Why do I feel so bad?" And with this statement, the man sank to his knees, his knife only half-heartedly slashing back and forth through Sakura. Was it just her, or was he becoming transparent? "I wanted to tell someone…I really did…but everything kept getting worse…" Sakura sat up straight as she realized that the man was indeed starting to disappear. "…and worse…and worse…" the knife quit moving as tears started to drip down the vanishing man's face. "…and…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I never meant to…" The voice drifted away into silence._

_The man was gone. A moment later, so was the darkness_

* * *

Sakura opened bleary eyes to find a face way too close to her own for comfort or identification. Considering the last thing she remembered was being told she was going to be killed, it was easy to understand how the child's natural reaction to this was to thrust out her arms and suck in breath to scream. Her arms struck something successfully, but her breath caught in her throat as fire seared through her. Sakura cried out at the sensation, but that too made pain flair up, leaving her gasping for breath. She might have started crying or hyperventilating, or both, if the face before hers hadn't backed up. "Don't you dare freak out on me, brat."

The moment Sakura recognized the voice and face above her, she completely disregarded the discomfort she felt as she sat up and threw her arms around Aniki's neck. Sakura cried. She knew that the mumbles she could hear coming from the boy in front of her were probably remarks about wasting water, but she didn't care. Neither pain nor grouchy preteen boys would keep her from hugging her big-brother figure for all she was worth. If Sakura had had her way, she would never have let go, but eventually she felt hands tug her away gently, and she didn't have the strength left to fight them.

Sakura found herself being set on her feet by the two hands (which she could now clearly see were not attached to Aniki). A familiar terse voice spoke from behind her. "You were right this time, boy, he did come back to the scene of the crime…but what did I tell you?" Although Sakura's back was turned to the woman, by now Sakura could recognize Mrs. Mebuki's voice anywhere. Currently she sounded both relieved and angry. "I wanted him for questioning!"Aniki shrugged, his eyes not leaving Sakura's. Mrs. Mebuki didn't seem to like his silence, for she continued hotly, "Just because I said the lives of the civilians came first, did not mean I was giving you permission to dispose of our suspect."

Aniki appeared to be ignoring the stern policewoman, though. Instead of even feigning attention or remorse, he was staring intently as Sakura's face, his eyes narrowed as if something had caught his attention. It was at that moment that the young Hoshi realized that she couldn't feel her Chakra in her Eyes anymore.

Sakura immediately squeezed her eyes shut. It took longer than usual to reactivate her Kekkei Genkai, but then again, it was hard to think warm thoughts when you had just faced down a murderer. When finally she opened her eyes again, this time knowing they were the blue they were supposed to be, she noticed a calculating look on Aniki's face. However, he didn't say anything to her as he stood up and looked over her head to Mrs. Mebuki. "The brat is going to need a medic." He then went on to say something about internal injuries, but Sakura didn't really hear anymore as she took in her surroundings for the first time.

They were still inside the boarded up house. Although Sakura didn't know how long she had been unconscious or how long Aniki and the policewoman had been with her, it clearly hadn't been long enough for them to have moved from the hallway near the bathroom. The fact that the lighting in the house hadn't changed much and that the box of knives remained where she had last seen it also pointed towards this conclusion. However, although most things remained the same, there _was_ one thing that now stood out to her. Before the building had smelled of dust and, perhaps, a bit like decaying flesh; now it smelled overwhelmingly metallic.

As Sakura thought this, Aniki moved forward—continuing his discussion with Mrs. Mebuki about something that Sakura wasn't paying any attention to—and the reason for the strong smell became very clear.

The baker lay before her, one hand still glued by an opaque glow to the knife embedded in the doorframe. The rest of him hung limply or sprawled on the ground in a disheveled heap. Lines of dull red ran down his free arm to meet the pool of blood beneath him. Sakura felt her gut churn as she realized the red lines were issuing from a wide gash across the man's neck. She couldn't see the man's face, but it looked as if his neck was smiling that same twisted grin she had seen right before she passed out.

Sakura's hands flew to cover her mouth as her gut retched. She just barely kept her breakfast down—more so due to the sudden flare of pain caused by her stomach contractions than due to her willpower. When Sakura removed her hands from her face, though, that sick feeling returned. Her hands were now covered in globs of congealing blood. Her mind blank, Sakura's hands returned to her face, feeling all over for some kind of injury, but there was none. Despite this, her hands reappeared before her eyes with more drying blood than before. Still not able to think coherently, Sakura tried to rub the blood off on her shirt, only to find that her upper body was as contaminated as her hands.

Sakura didn't realize she was crying until a hand landed on her shoulder. Too emotionally stunned to jump in surprise, Sakura slowly raised her teary eyes to the owner of the hand. It was Aniki. Behind him stood Mrs. Mebuki and another man wearing the police uniform—had he been there the entire time or had he come while she was distracted? Sakura didn't know, but her curiosity was almost nonexistent. The two police officers were talking briskly, not even trying to lower their voices. Despite this, Sakura didn't understand a thing as their voices passed in one ear and out the other. Her mind and eyes were drifting back to the blood splatters in the hallway when Aniki's hand tightened on her shoulder and he shifted just enough to take up her entire field of vision. She noticed distantly that the only blood on him was a smear on his shirt, as if he had wiped his hands off there.

"Eyes on my face, brat." Sakura automatically did as ordered. "Your tears have already served their purpose of flushing foreign contaminants from your eyes; there is no need for their continuation." Something about this down-to-earth statement, with how it was said without an ounce of pity or concern, without any indication that a child was being addressed, made Sakura straighten her stance. For once someone was not treating her like an object or clueless child to be talked over, but rather like an equal. Swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, Sakura sniffled and then flinched as her side hurt again. Taking shallow breaths, the little girl met Aniki's eyes, trying to show through her actions that she was as grown-up as he was treating her. If her lip quivered and a few more tears leaked out, he didn't say anything about it. Instead he looked her over like an artist assessing a damaged painting.

After many long moments of silence, Aniki nodded and began to say something (his tone made Sakura almost think it might be a complement), but just then the voice of the two police officers grew too loud to ignore. The male that Sakura didn't know was saying angrily, "…said he would be a benefit to the search!" Mebuki made to say something, but was interrupted. "Now our perpetrator is dead, along with any chance to find out how he was able to sneak through our guard undetected! This entire area was under surveillance—he certainly wasn't in this house last night when we searched it. I hold you responsible for this compromising situation—"

This time Mrs. Mebuki was able to successfully interject, "I understand, Sir, however I believe the situation is not as bad as you make it out. Our witnesses also made it in the house undetected and—"

The policeman cut her off. "—and nothing, Mebuki. We already know this area is littered with holes that small children can get through." Sakura thought she heard Mrs. Mebuki say something around the lines of 'yeah, and they're being watched', but the policeman's angry voice carried over her calm one. "Aside from their safety, children are of no concern to me or this investigation. Their input will provide minimum if any assistance. It is because of your decision to allow this hoodlum to partake in—"

The lethargy that Sakura had been stuck in earlier evaporated throughout this conversation. By the time she realized the policeman was saying that she was useless because she was a child and that he was calling Aniki a hoodlum (the meaning of which she didn't know, but the derogatory nature of which she could surmise), she had had enough. Ignoring the bolt of pain that attended her deep breath in, Sakura stated loud enough to drown out the policeman's voice. "You're wrong."

Sakura instinctively shrank back against Aniki when she felt all eyes turn to her, but her voice remained unaffected. Despite the killer look the policeman was giving her, she explained bravely, "We got in through the laundry room downstairs. There's a cupboard that isn't a cupboard down there, and it's connected to a tunnel. He…" Sakura's voice quieted as she glanced in the direction of the body—not that she could see it through Aniki, "…He said something about the tunnel too."

The man's eyes widened, the anger inside them vanishing, only to be replaced with a calculating look. "And how did you know about this tunnel?"

Distracted by the growing pain in her side, Sakura didn't recognize the accusatory nature of the policeman's statement. Grimacing, Sakura stated more calmly than she would have otherwise, "I didn't." Unconsciously Sakura ran her hand over her side as she continued, "Keiko was the one who said we should hide in the tunnel from the bullies chasing us. I don't think she even knew they came all the way out h—eee!" The rest of Sakura's statement was cut off by a screech tearing itself from her throat. Her hand had pressed against something on her lower chest that did not appreciate the contact.

Without warning of any kind or care for her modesty, Aniki yanked her shirt up to reveal that one side of her chest was black and blue, with a strange bulge on the side that hurt. Mrs. Mebuki exclaimed something about inappropriate behavior, but Sakura didn't care about Aniki's action—her five-year-old mentality did not contain the fear of nudity (or anything even seminude) that any true nine-year-old would possess in such a situation. Instead she only winced and tried not to cry when Aniki touched the area right beside the bulge.

"Enough questions," was the red-head's calm statement as he lowered her shirt back down and grabbed her wrist, "medics—now." Sakura heard the policeman protest, but Aniki ignored it as he led her away. They were halfway down the hallway when Sakura heard the policeman groan something about 'won't let go' and Mrs. Mebuki state blandly 'too soon for rigor mortis'. Sakura made to turn around to look, but Aniki tugged her hand, pulling her away from a piece of rubble she would have otherwise tripped over. "Face forward," he grouched. But Sakura was curious, and so she tried to look back out of the corner of her eye while still 'facing forward'. It worked.

The policeman was tugging at the arm of the dead baker, trying to pull it and the knife free. Although Sakura couldn't understand why the man would want to be touching a dead body or why he seemed so angry that he wasn't able to overpower the opaque glow, she did understand that this was exactly the kind of thing Kirsche had been telling her about. Originally when Kirsche had said she was better off learning how to undo Hoshi Jutsu first, Sakura had thought it was because the older girl didn't think she was good enough, or smart enough, or strong enough, or have enough Chakra to actually do the Jutsu. Now she had to wonder if the exact opposite were true. As she closed her eyes and brought to mind the hand movements that she had learned just the night before, Sakura had to wonder if maybe Kirsche had taught her what she had, not because she thought her incapable, but rather because she knew Sakura would…what…accidently use a Jutsu she had never been taught?

Well, that certainly was the case right now, but at least thanks to Kirsche's foresight she could undo what she had unintentionally done. Thankfully undoing Jutsu didn't require much Chakra—she didn't seem to have more than a few handfuls left. Moving her free hand just as Kirsche had taught her, Sakura watched the opaque glow vanish just as Mrs. Mebuki supplanted the policeman in grabbing onto the baker's wrist. The sight of the red-faced policeman when the body easily detached itself from the knife made Sakura giggle—and then wish she hadn't as her body reminded her why Aniki was dragging her away.

Aniki glanced back—probably because of her giggle—then frowned as his eyes landed on her. "Face forward means nothing if your eyes aren't open, brat." Sakura blinked up at him in confusion…and only then realized her eyes had still been closed…and at that same moment she saw the two police officers disappear behind her as she and Aniki rounded a corner. While Sakura's quickly tiring mind tried to process this strange split-vision Aniki sighed, then interrupted her thoughts. "Both eyes forward—don't make me repeat myself again."

Sakura did as she was told, too tired to do otherwise. Her eyes were drooping by the time they exited the house (apparently the front door no longer existed). She was met by three more policemen and an anxious Keiko who would have thrown herself on Sakura if Aniki hadn't stepped in the way. Aniki said something gruffly—probably to the police officers—but Sakura couldn't make out what he said over the roaring in her ears. She didn't even realize her eyes had closed and that her Chakra had fizzled out, terminating her Kekkei Genkai, until she felt the hand on her wrist quickly reposition itself as she was scooped off her feet. Sakura was out before she realized that this new position made her injury hurt even more.

* * *

That night Sakura found herself tucked between Youko and Karura in bed for yet another sleepover. The problem was: she couldn't sleep—and not just because Youko was snoring in her ear. Although she couldn't remember any of it, apparently Aniki had brought her to the hospital where Youko was working and somehow coerced them into actually reattaching her broken rib (Youko told her the man who personally tended to her was none other than the one that had hit her with the clipboard).

Although the rib was back where it was meant to be instead of almost poking out of her skin, it was still weak and could break again if not allowed to heal properly (once again according to Youko). And thus, Sakura was forced to wear an irritating linen wrap whose purpose, Sakura could only surmise, was to keep her from breathing while simultaneously making her itch herself to death. The binding on her half-healed ribs was almost as bad as the sling she had once had to wear on her arm, only her arm didn't breathe. If she could have, Sakura would have torn the bandages off, but Youko said she couldn't take it off for at least three days—and Sakura was positive that the entire reason Youko demanded that she sleep with her and Karura tonight was to make sure that she left the binding alone. She never once thought that perhaps her future aunt was trying to protect her from nightmares.

Strangely, though, Sakura couldn't bring herself to reflect on the baker's actions with terror. Sure, she was still scared, but because of the dream—Sakura could only think to call the vision she'd had of the baker while she was briefly unconscious a dream, though it hadn't quite felt like one—she just wasn't terrified. That dream, specifically the tears and apology at the end, made her feel like the monster the baker had become hadn't been the real him…sort of, she realized, like how Sand Gaara wasn't the real Gaara. Sure, both the monster baker and Sand Gaara were dangerous and scary, and she most certainly didn't want to be spending any more time with either than necessary, but she loved her best friend in the whole world to pieces. Although she never knew the real baker, Sakura optimistically decided that if she had, he would have been nice, like Gaara.

Sakura knew, after all, that no matter what her best friend did, no matter how scary his gaze and actions could become, deep down he was the same little boy who had offered her a ball, thinking she was going to take it and run away. A boy who thought he was a monster because everybody said he was. But he wasn't. Although his actions might sometimes be monstrous, his heart never would be.

And it was with thoughts like these that Sakura fell asleep.

_She had had this dream before, Sakura realized as screaming people ran right through her. She was once again racing towards the sand cloud—the one in which she had last seen Gaara—no, Sand Gaara—threatening someone. And then there he was before her, one arm covered in sand as it pinned someone to a wall. Then, like in the dream before, she heard Gaara shriek out his question about what this person had done with her…only this time, the words came out slightly garbled, like dream speech sometimes was. Sakura heard her best friend repeat his question, just as the person raised their head. It was Yashamaru, and blood was trickling from his mouth. The feminine man said something in return, something that sounded like a denial. Gaara's reaction was to tighten his fist and thus his sand just a little bit. It looked to Sakura as if Yashamaru bit back a scream._

_Sakura tried to stop her best friend, tried to tell him that she was all right, that she would be back soon, but as had happened last time, she couldn't reach him. Not wanting to see her friend do something she knew would be regretted later, Sakura tried to will herself awake. Only this time, it didn't work…there was no Karura in the waking world to shake her awake. So instead Sakura tried to turn away, but she couldn't. She tried to close her eyes and block her ears, but she couldn't. Instead, all she could do was watch as Gaara said something else, something angry. Strangely, it also sounded as if he was hurt._

_Sakura was just beginning to wonder why Gaara might think that his uncle had anything to do with her disappearance when another person entering the scene disrupted her thoughts. _

_Why was Shin—no, her daddy—why was he here?_

_Her father-figure said something in the calm, bland voice that had always soothed away Sakura's fears. Gaara's head turned towards Shin faster than Sakura ever thought it could have and still remain attached to his neck._

_Gaara said one word, his sand loosening on his uncle while simultaneously starting to float dangerously towards Shin. To Sakura's surprise, she could see no fear on her daddy—no—her dad's face (she remembered Keiko telling her at one point in the day that calling her dad 'daddy' was just way too immature—and one thing Sakura didn't want to be was immature). Shin was not backing up as most other people would have done when facing down Sand Gaara—though, she noted, he wasn't getting closer to the boy, as she would have done, either—and slowly, as if not to startle Gaara, he pulled out a paper as he continued speaking in his calming voice._

_Before Sakura could blink, Gaara had the paper in his hands, his brows furrowed as if he were having a hard time reading what was written. By the time he finally looked up, his sand had released Yashamaru and was now only floating around Gaara in an agitated manner._

_This time, When Gaara spoke Sakura was able to catch one of the garbled words: 'Who'. And When Shin spoke in answer she caught two: 'Kirsche' and 'back'._

_Sakura didn't get to see Gaara's reaction to this as the dream faded into darkness._

* * *

And that's that…this time no cliff hanger…or at least, I don't see this as a cliff hanger. I hope you appreciate it. I do love cliff hangers.

Someone had brought it to my attention that I could do a voice recording of me reading a part of this story and I was wondering if anyone else would be interested. If so, what part would you like to hear?

I'll try to update again in about two weeks (around 4/11), depending on review number, I might update sooner.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to Aniki's 'care and concern' while flamers are welcome to Aniki's 'wrath'. Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Guest/BriEva (Thank you for the complement, and I hope this chapter answered many of your questions. I'm not sure if I'm going to get into Shippuden, but I'm certainly going to get to the Chunin exams_—_and it will probably stay in this one story. You will see how her flashbacks affect the future...eventually. And yes, the Scroll of the Circle only sends people to the past. Time Walkers can go to possible futures and change them, but they have to do so manually, which means that it would be very hard to do and few would try, let alone succeed.), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (The answer to that question is in the first 'paragraph' of my author's note. As to the favorites thing, you are in my list of people who have Favorited this story...if you are still having issues on your end make sure to send the site an email about it), moodymel (I'm glad I caught you unawares...and hey, at least I didn't leave you with a cliff hanger this time), Random -k (Yes, he is a puppet user, but no, he was not the one doing the killing. I like your devious thinking, though), Dreams-Wishes-Hopes (She will go back once everything that needs to happen, happens. It will probably be at least another 5 chapters), DarqueDeth4444 (I'm not quite sure I understand your question, but yes, Sakura is time traveling in the past at the moment), SnowWolfSpirit (Thank you for calling me cruel...It's a good think I know you, or else I might feel hurt. The answers to your questions have been reveled in this chapter), & Jelly-Me (I am glad my cliff hanger impresses you and I'm also glad you have 'returned to the fold'. And yes, I too, was rather surprised this morning to find out that someone had reviewed just a few hours before I planned to update. Lucky you!) for reviewing!


	34. Ocha, Omurice, and Ballet

Disclaimer: If I owned, more people would have happy endings…

Chapter 34: Ocha, Omurice, and Ballet

The next day Sakura found out, to her dismay, that because of her newest injuries she was once again forced to stay inside. Not that she hadn't tried to go out and find Aniki or Keiko to play with—she had tiptoed very dutifully down the stairs and towards one of the less used doors outside—but Megumi had appeared out of nowhere, a ladle in one hand a stern look on her face. Sakura didn't like to think about the severe lecture that followed, even if it had ended with Megumi giving her a careful hug and an offer to teach her how to make omurice tomorrow 'if she was feeling up to it'. And then the inn matron had marched Sakura back upstairs and told her to rest—and warned her that if she tried to sneak out again the woman would personally put a cot in the kitchen and make Sakura lay on it where she would always be within Megumi's sight.

Sakura chose to go back to her room and lay down again. To her surprise, she did fall back asleep. She awoke to a nearby door slamming shut. Slowly getting out of bed—with only one wince of pain when she turned her torso too much—Sakura activated her Eyes, then slowly opened her bedroom door and looked out. She could hear heavy footfalls going down the stairs just as the door to the room next to her was opened hastily and a plain looking brown haired woman hurried out, calling out something about 'it' not being such a big deal as she, too, loudly banged down the steps. Sakura was about to close her door again, her curiosity sated, when she heard a sigh issue from the doorway next to hers.

The pink haired child blinked, then unintentionally caught the gaze of the girl with boyishly short brown hair now standing with her arms crossed in the doorway her mother had left wide open—or at least, Sakura assumed that this girl and the woman who just left were mother and daughter…though they looked similar enough to possibly be siblings. "Sorry 'bout that," the brunet said, making Sakura jump (and then wished she hadn't, as her side protested), "eh?" the girl grunted, her brown eyes narrowing as she strode closer to Sakura's door, her blue dress swishing with every movement, "What's wrong with ya'? You're pale as snow."

Sakura's eyes were automatically drawn to the ground as she blushed furiously. She still wasn't good with strangers, though, she mentally noted, at least she no longer was terrified of new people—she just felt uncomfortable. "I—I'm alright" Sakura stuttered to her feet. She would have kept speaking to her appendages if just then the girl before her hadn't snorted disbelievingly. Sakura's eyes snapped up, a small peak of temper making her forget the draw of the ground, as she said, "It's true…" but then she trailed off as the deep breath she had taken to speak sent another warning shot of pain through her side. "Well…" Sakura continued more lightly than before, "…mostly, anyhow. I just…ah…" Sakura really didn't feel like recounting yesterday's encounter with a murdered, so finally she ended with a demur, "…I just got hurt…yesterday."

The brown eyes lit up. "Ah, now the truth comes out. How'd ya get hurt?" Sakura's eyes fell back to the ground as she shrank into herself. "Hmm," was the brunette's response to this, "that bad, eh? Well, s'pose I can't expect ya to pour your heart out t' a stranger." And then a hand was thrust between Sakura's gaze and her feet, pulling her attention back to a smiling face. "Nice t' finally meet 'cha , little miss next door neighbor."

The smile was contagious, Sakura found, as she tentatively shook her neighbor's hand. "Kura…" she mumbled while trying to fight the need to avoid eye contact, "that's…what everyone calls me."

"Kura, eh…well, s'pose that's better than something unimaginative, like, say, Sakura—I mean, pink hair—really!" Sakura sunk into herself, feeling as if she'd just been hit, and although the brunet did seem to notice her reaction, the older girl seemed to attribute it to a different source. "You in more pain? Do ya need to lie down?" Sakura shook her head, unable to speak. The older girl gave her a searching look, then sighed before continuing where she'd left off, "I mean, I don' have anythin' against the name, but i's just that, with your hair color it would be so…typical…borin'…sort'a like my last name."

As Sakura watched, the brunet's face scrunched up in disgust, "My last name's Ocha…ya know, like the tea…and that might not be so bad if we weren't wanderin' tea merchants —well, my parent's, anyhow, I just come along 'cause I have t'—but it's just so obvious! I hate it. And then my parent's had to decide t' name me Riko…once again, nothing against the name but it's just so…ugg…not what I'd choose." By the end of this spiel, Sakura couldn't help but giggle, the discomfort of earlier gone with the brunet's disavowal of her own name. The older girl was still speaking, "Ya said everyone calls ya Kura? Well, feel free t' call me Cha'ri—that's what everyone but my parent's call me—it might not be the most original, but it's certainly better than being called a tea all the time."

Suddenly Cha'ri stopped talking and blushed, running a hand through her short brown locks self-consciously. "Ah, sorry 'bout that…didn't mean t'…well…yeah, ya get what I mean." And whether Sakura did or not, the brunet quickly changed the topic, "So, haven't seen ya around much…how long ya been here?" And then, to clarify, she added, "I mean at this inn…not here, as in standing in your doorway—which, by the way, are ya sure ya don't need t' sit or lie down? You're still pale."

Sakura shook her head no, then yes, and then had to fight back yet another bout of giggles so that her chest wouldn't hurt any more than it already did. Finally she answered, "I'm fine, and I've been here…about two months, I think."

"Ah," was the brown eyed girl's response, "so that means ya must know this place like the back of your hand! Lucky! I still get turned around." And then, as unexpectedly as the first time it had happened, the older girl seemed to decide it was time to change subjects. "Hey, this is gonna sound weird, but do ya know where the fire extinguishers are in this place." Slowly Sakura nodded bewilderedly. "Great! Then when ya get the chance, could ya show me where they are?"

"Sure…" Sakura replied slowly, remembering the time Shin had pointed them all out to her, even the well hidden ones, "but, why?"

"That's simple," Cha'ri replied almost before Sakura had finished asking, "there's a reason everyone else here uses earthen building. This place is a firetrap—all this wood, in the desert, high temps, no water—it's a disaster waiting t' happen. And between you and me, I'd rather know where t' go if such a disaster ever struck. But hey," and here it was again, Sakura realized, the sudden change in topic, "I forgot t' ask how old ya were. I'm thirteen, by the way—my birthday was about a month or so ago." When Sakura shyly replied that she had just celebrated her ninth birthday, the ever chatty Cha'ri asked, "Really, when's your birthday?" Sakura's answer of March 28th set the girl off in sequels. "Really? Tha's my birthday too! Wow, we really have a lot in common. Hey, please tell me ya like sweets…"

The conversation continued in this manner until Sakura laughed so hard she started crying from the pain of her half-healed rib. Then, seeming contrite, Cha'ri had apologized for keeping her up when she clearly needed to rest. The older girl reminded Sakura about her promise to show her the fire extinguishers when she was feeling better before she closed the door, leaving Sakura to sleep through the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

_Sakura was dreaming again. Currently she was in the black 'in-between' that usually occurred between dreams, having just finished a dream about Keiko. If this was a Walking Dream—and Sakura had every reason to believe it was—then Keiko was now grounded for a month. Apparently while reveling in the fact that her daughter had just escaped a murderer, Keiko's mother had found out for the first time that her daughter had been pulling pranks on just about all of her schoolmates—and Keiko's mother had not been happy at all with this insight, and thus had grounded Keiko._

_What felt like hours passed before white fire-flies lit the darkness with their dance. As always happened whenever the fire-flies appeared, a white-on-black movie soon started, and, as was also common in the white-on-black dreams, Aniki was one of the main characters. For the first time, though, the person standing before Aniki was no stranger…even more surprising, the not-stranger was none other than herself. Sakura had never dreamt about herself before—not like this, anyhow. But there Dream Sakura was, standing in front of Aniki, just staring at him, as if she were waiting for something. _

_And then, for another first, the dream momentarily jerked, as if this really was a film and someone had tried to pull on it while it was being projected. This only lasted for a second, though, before the dream settled back into normalcy, leaving Dream Sakura to stare unendingly at Aniki, and real Sakura to wonder why Aniki's eyes suddenly looked cold. It wasn't until Dream Sakura said, "Why won't you answer me?" that real Sakura realized that she must have come in in the middle of a conversation. Although, a second look at Aniki made Sakura think that not much conversing was going on. Maybe that was why Dream Sakura looked so flustered. Even so, whatever was going on was clearly so important to Dream Sakura that she wasn't willing to break eye-contact with Aniki, not even to blink._

_The attack came without warning—Real Sakura barely saw Aniki's eyebrow twitch before his hand had shot out and had pushed Dream Sakura—hard—hard enough for the girl to stumble back, loose her footing, and fall on her behind. The Sakura who knew she was dreaming felt as if the world had fallen out from under her as she watched the Sakura who wished she was dreaming stare up at the now glowering Aniki. He was speaking, his hands clinched in fists and his eyes blazing. "Go away! Not you, nor anyone else, has a right to—" and then he cut himself off, as if he realized he was letting his emotions rule him. _

_Real Sakura stood frozen as Aniki closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he released that breath, his eyes slowly opened again. No longer were his eyes burning with anger—in fact, they looked dead to Real Sakura. Aniki opened his mouth, starting to say something about 'having had enough', but he was interrupted. While Real Sakura had stood frozen, her heart broken and confused as she contemplated Aniki and his change in facial expressions and attitude, Dream Sakura had stood up—tears streaming out of eyes angry enough to have matched Aniki's—and, by all appearances, not having noticed any of the things Real Sakura had—kicked Aniki in the shin, just as she once had the lookalike named Katsu. Just before the little girl's foot made contact with its target, Real Sakura thought she saw Aniki make as if to move—but then he didn't. And what was worse, Dream Sakura was crying out that she hated him as she turned and ran away—and real Sakura couldn't do anything to stop her…even though she now realized that Aniki had let the child kick him. What that exactly meant, Real Sakura didn't know, but it had to mean something. It had to. As did Aniki's closing statement:_

"_It's better this way. I don't need anybody…"_

_At this point Sakura expected the dream to fade to darkness as it usually did, but this time a flash of white blotted out the dream—and then, for the briefest of moments, Sakura saw the flash of a kunai flying towards Aniki—only to have the entire 'movie' freeze, and then rewind all the way back to the stare-down._

_Once again Dream Sakura stared at Aniki, once again that strange 'snag' in the dream occurred, and once again Dream Sakura asked why he wasn't answering her. This time though, Dream Sakura's eyes, if only for a moment, flicked to one side—Real Sakura tried to turn around to see what had caught her eye, but it didn't work. Instead she could only watch as Dream Sakura's eyes snapped back just as Aniki's eyebrow gave a twitch. As before, without any true warning, Aniki's hand was jabbing out with just enough force to send her sprawling on the ground—only this time, he never made contact. Instead, to Sakura's surprise, Dream Sakura threw herself forward—just missing Aniki's strike as it skimmed over her head harmlessly. The fact that he had missed hitting her had less to do with Sakura's amazing dodging technique and more to do with the fact that Aniki, perhaps realizing that with her new position his hand would have made contact with the little girl's head, had jerked his arm up at the last moment._

_Dream Sakura had her shaking arms wrapped around Aniki's torso as she cried out what sounded to Sakura like apologies, and then the crying girl mumbled into his shirt, "It's my fault, isn't it? It's because of me, that you—you…"_

_Real Sakura didn't get to hear anything else because once again that flash of white followed by a kunai broke into the scene. Strangely Sakura thought the background looked different from the first dream, but she wasn't given time to understand how so before the white fire-flies dispersed, leaving Sakura back in the darkness of the 'in-between'. _

Sakura awoke just as the sun was starting to set to Youko poking her cheek. "Ah, you're finally up!"

"Mmhm…" Sakura mumbled as she slowly sat up—this time there was no twinge of pain. "What's going on?" she asked as she realized that Karura was also in the room.

Youko jumped to answer, "Dinner, that's what! Come on, get up, mom says you need to eat. We're having another sleep over tonight, by the way! Now come on."

* * *

That night when Sakura went to lessons with Kirsche, she refused to let the lessons begin until Kirsche explained why she hadn't warned _her_, at least, about the baker. She would have believed Kirsche even if no one else would have.

"You knew," Sakura spoke decisively; it was clear to the five-year-old, after all, that the older girl had known about the baker's actions all along, "you knew but didn't tell me!"

For once, the smile on Kirsche's face made Sakura want to kick her in the shin as the older girl shrugged. "Indeed, I did."

"Why didn't you tell me?" When Kirsche only raised an eyebrow, Sakura added hotly, "If I had known the monster baker was a bad guy, I wouldn't be hurt like this. If I had known, I could have done something! Keiko and I could have escaped sooner. I could have—"

Kirsche nodded her head abruptly and interrupted, "Exactly. That is why I didn't inform you." Kirsche waited for Sakura's outburst of unstructured, irritated questions to pass before she continued. "If I had told you, you would have done something differently, something that would have jeopardized your future. So could I have told you? Yes, but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should."

Sakura almost nodded her head—she had heard that statement before—but then she crossed her arms, not wanting to forgive Kirsche that easily. "How," Sakura decided to demand, "How could getting away from the monster baker sooner have jeopar…whatever you called it…my future?"

Kirsche smiled softly, "Jeopardize, and it means to put something at risk." Then Kirsche broke eye contact to look out the window. It was a few minutes before Kirsche looked back at her, then sighed while still smiling, "You aren't going to let this go, are you?" They both knew that was a rhetorical question. "To tell you the truth," Kirsche began slowly, as if choosing her words carefully, "many things. Your escapades—adventures—yesterday were the very foundation of your future. For better or for worse, it was a turning point in many people's lives, and had you done any differently, many doors would have been closed to you."

Perhaps it was because of the infernal bandage still rubbing Sakura wrong or perhaps because of her too-recent near-death experience, but Sakura was irritated and feeling very argumentative. "Like what?" She demanded, one hand absentmindedly tugging at the wrapping around her chest.

Kirsche's smile faded as she looked Sakura over, as if weighing her options. Slowly…oh so slowly…Kirsche nodded, then looked back out the window before answering, "The best example I can give you is…your chance of ever becoming a ninja. Although it's still not a sure deal, what you did yesterday, without even knowing you did it, increased your likelihood of being able to become a ninja. If I had warned you about what was to come…your change in actions would have closed that door forever." Sakura could only stare, her hands falling limp to her lap as her normally smiling relative met her eyes gravely. This was no joke—or attempt to sidestep the issue—Sakura couldn't remember Kirsche ever looking this serious.

Her face still solemn, Kirsche added, "It is important to always weigh the consequences of your actions—before you make the decision to go through with them—especially if it involves something that you've Seen. Many times if you stop to think, you will see that the best line of action is often the one you would least like to take. And sometimes…" Kirsche added as she turned her face away, her voice lowering, "…sometimes the best thing you can do is to do nothing at all…even if it means someone has to get hurt…yourself included." What followed this was a pregnant pause. Finally Kirsche turned back around, a smile once again on her face, but Sakura still couldn't bring herself to continue their conversation. Kirsche was smiling, but for once Sakura was sure that it wasn't real.

Even though she didn't feel like it, Sakura forced herself to smile in response. For some reason she felt that any other action would have prematurely ended this night's lesson-time on a sour note…and Sakura desperately wanted to learn how to do on purpose whatever Hoshi Jutsu she had used on accident.

* * *

That night Sakura slept well, without dreams, and awoke before Karura, Youko, or the dawn. Slipping out of bed turned out to be a bit difficult, seeing as she was tucked between the two girls, but she managed—without even a single twinge of pain. Slipping out of Youko's room, she hurried to her own and changed—today it was a deep red dress that she and Karura had picked out a few days ago with the addition of the necklace Megumi had given her and a hair tie around one wrist in anticipation of making omurice. She definitely felt up to it.

Tiptoeing out of her room, the pink haired child had almost made it to the staircase when she noticed a door further down the hall open. Out stepped a half-asleep Shin in blue pajamas that looked as if they would soon be outgrown. When he yawned and stretched, she could see his tummy. The grey-eyed boy didn't even seem to notice her until he nearly ran into her, and then, for the first time in perhaps ever, Sakura saw her future dad's face go bright red. Sakura giggled, then gave him a large smile, not understanding why he might be embarrassed.

"Morning, Shin!" Sakura whispered excitedly, then grasped his hand—in what she saw as a reassuring way—and added, "I think you're growing." Sakura didn't realize that her statement and gesture was only making the boy more self-conscious as she started down the stairs, his hand still in hers. Sakura continued unawares, "Your mom said she'd teach me how to make omurice today. If she does, would you mind trying it and telling me what you think?"

By this time they had reached the main floor and Shin had regained some semblance of nonchalance, though his face was still tinged pink when he answered without meeting her eyes, "Sure…I would be happy to."

The two of them found Megumi already in the kitchen (Sakura was really starting to wonder if the woman ever slept) and after a brief but thorough 'health check', Sakura was given the okay to step up to the stove—proverbially only, because, as Megumi quickly pointed out, she had to prepare the ingredients first. Sakura was cracking eggs into a bowl when she realized she hadn't tied back her hair. Her eyes widened at the predicament as a strand of hair fell onto her nose, making it itch. Sakura tried to blow the hair away to no avail. She was just about ready to put everything back down and wash her eggy-hands so that she could pull off her hair tie when suddenly Shin was beside her, tucking the hair away for her.

Sakura was about to thank him when his gaze slid to her wrist and he said calmly, "Hold out your hand, I will get the hair band for you." When she did as he asked, he did just that, somehow keeping the hair tie from touching her dirtied hand; and then, to her surprise, Shin pulled her hair up for her and tied it off in a high ponytail and then calmly handed her the next egg.

Sakura took the egg and was about to thank him once again when Megumi spoke, her voice sounding oddly happy to Sakura's ears. "Oh?" chuckled the inn matron as she continued good-naturedly, "So you want to help now, do you, Shin? Whenever your sister and I ask for help in the kitchen, you always seem to disappear…guess we just needed the right bait!" For some reason that Sakura couldn't begin to understand, Shin turned away from his mother, not bothering to give an answer as he busied himself with digging out the new frying pan.

It took two hours and fifteen attempts before Sakura had made an omurice that she was satisfied with—although Shin, the dear boy, had tried her first attempt (a failure, in her opinion) and called it magnificent before he had to rush off to help his uncle in the woodworking shop. Twenty minutes later Sakura was serving up her multiple attempts to the newly awakened Karura and Youko. Youko, as had become a habit for the girl when eating Sakura's cooking, said it was good in a tone that said it hurt her to say so, and then as soon as she finished she rushed back upstairs to change and head to the hospital. Karura, on the other hand, took her time, and only after Youko had left did she set down her eating utensils and smile warmly at her pink haired friend.

"Today was your first day making these?" The girl asked, a twinkle in her indigo eyes as Sakura nodded, "Well, now I've got to wonder if maybe Shin wasn't blowing things too far out of proportion. This is actually really good. I'll admit that Megumi's omurice is better," Karura added, knowing that Sakura would want the truth, "but her cooking usually is, so that's not a fair comparison. For a first time, this is amazing." When Sakura's bashful response was that it was actually her fifteenth attempt, not her first, Karura actually laughed. "Small details, Kura, small details…learn to take a compliment." Karura was just picking up her eating utensils when her eyes caught sight of the clock and she gasped, "Look at the time! I have to be at the dance studio in twenty minutes!" Rushing to stand Karura patted Sakura's head, "Sorry, Kura, but I've got to go. Tonight's our opening performance." She was already halfway out the door when Karura called back, "Tell Megumi I expect to see you there—I don't care what she says about your health, you look fine to me and I want all my friends to see my first time as the prima ballerina!" And with that she disappeared. Moments later Sakura could see the older girl sprinting down the road outside a nearby window.

"That girl…" Sakura jumped and spun around. Megumi was standing not even a foot behind her, a bemused smile on her face. The bemused smile turned into a motherly smile when the older woman's eyes shifted to Sakura. "And yes, I will let you go if you're still feeling fine by that time. Her performance isn't until this evening, so don't overexert yourself. Now, why don't you clean up out here while I finish making breakfast for the rest of my guests…those tea merchants, I know, will be down soon...and that man sure is grouchy, so I'd rather have him in and out of here as soon as possible." This last part was said under the woman's breath, but still Sakura caught it. She knew better than to mention it, though, instead opting to collect her friend's dishes and returned back to the kitchen to clean up the mess she had made back there (one of the rice bags had torn open and spilled everywhere, not to mention more than one omurice had failed to remain entirely in the pan).

By the time Sakura finally exited the kitchen, she found a familiar face just finishing her own breakfast. The thirteen-year-olds brown eyes met Sakura's blue ones and lit up. Stuffing the last remnants of her breakfast into her mouth, Cha'ri quickly stood and nearly ran over to her, mumbling out "Morn'n," with the food still in her mouth. By the time the brunet had reached Sakura's side, the older girl had swallowed and now both of them were just staring at each other. They were wearing the same exact dress, just in different sizes. It was Cha'ri who finally broke their silent stare down. "Wow…we really are alike. Oh, and by the way, ya look a lot better today—er, I don't mean the dress—not to say it don't look good on ya—it's better on you than me, that's for sure—but uh, that's not what I was trying t' say either. Sorry, what I meant was ya don't look as pale as ya did yesterday…I suppose that means you're feeling better, then?"

"Yeah," Sakura answered, beaming, "I even made breakfast this morning for my friends!"

"Your friends?" Cha'ri repeated questioningly, her eyes scanning the room as if expecting to see any other people their age. Instead all she found was a bunch of 'old geezers' and a young married couple who looked oblivious to the world. "Where are they?"

"They all had to go places." Sakura answered, and then continued with the smallest of pouts on her face, "Normally I would go outside and play, but Megumi says I'm not allowed to leave the inn…or at least, not until later tonight, and even then only if I'm still feeling alright." By this point Sakura was absentmindedly trying to scratch under the binding on her chest. She wished she hadn't when the added pressure brought forth a less severe version of the pain she had felt the previous day. The pink haired child hissed with pain, both of her hands going to her side—but just as quickly as it had come, the pain passed, leaving irritation in its place. "Ugg!" the five-year-old turned nine-year-old grunted in annoyance, "I hate being injured…and I hate having to wear a bandage when I'm not even bleeding!" She didn't even realizing that Cha'ri looked worried until after she had finished complaining.

What followed was an awkward silence, and then out of nowhere Cha'ri laughed, though Sakura thought it sounded a bit forced, and then the older girl changed the subject, "Hey, since ya say you're feeling better, think ya can keep your promise from yesterday?"

For a moment Sakura looked at the brunet confused—she didn't remember promising anything—but then she _did_ remember telling the girl that she would show her the fire extinguishers. She hadn't promised, but that didn't matter. As she was sure Karura would have said, that was a small detail, and besides, Sakura had no reason not to.

The pink haired child ended up spending the rest of her morning and a large part of the afternoon with Cha'ri, showing her things around the inn, and then moving on to chatting and playing board and card games. As it turned out, they had almost all the same interests (although the one time Sakura brought up her most recent chapter of 'Herbs: Healers and Killers' Cha'ri had given her a strange look and hastily changed the subject) and they were both terrible at playing Old Maid (they ended up giving up on the game when they realized that both of them could always read the other's face well enough to know who had the Old Maid). She might have spent even more time with her new friend if Shin and Karura hadn't entered the inn's common room looking for her.

Somehow Sakura found herself swept out of the room before she could even think to introduce Cha'ri to the two of them.

* * *

Karura was smiling so hard she thought her face might crack as the curtain closed for the final time to loud applause. Her first time as the prima ballerina and it had gone by perfectly. Indigo eyes unseeing, Karura finished up backstage, her mind still on her performance. She felt almost giddy as she changed clothes and started heading to where Youko had said they would meet up. Her friend with the reddish-brown hair had implored her once again to have a sleep over on Kura's behalf. That had to mean that sometime last night Youko had awoken to find the girl whimpering in her sleep, or something akin to that.

A bit of Karura's giddiness flew away with this thought. Although Kura did a good job of hiding it, it was clear she had been traumatized by her encounter with a murderer. The blond haired girl was just beginning to ponder on what she might be able to do to alleviate some of her young friend's fears when something red caught her previously inattentive eye. Her head shot up and to the side of its own accord, searching out the shock of red that might or might not be someone she knew. Whoever it had been, they were gone. Sighing disappointedly, Karura returned her eyes forward, only to jump back a step when she realized the person she was looking for was right before her, a bouquet in his hands.

"Katsu!" Karura gasped, one hand flying to her heart—was it beating so hard from fright, or because it was him? He certainly hadn't been right in front of her a moment ago. "Why are you here?" Not that she wasn't glad to see him, but she hadn't told him about her debut. She knew he was busy—he was likely to be the next Kazekage after all—and she hadn't wanted to bother him with something so…unimportant to the village's safety…as her performance. And yet, here he was.

One of his eyebrows rose as his lip twitched in what she knew was a well hidden smile. "What does it look like?" He asked as he gently took her hand and placed the bouquet in it. "Congratulations," he added, "It was a good performance. You did very well." Karura could feel her face turning bright red. Katsu didn't hand out many complements, but when he did… Her giddiness was coming back.

"Thank you," the embarrassed girl whispered to the flowers she was now using to hide her blush, "but how—I mean why—aren't you busy?" When all she got in answer was silence, Karura slowly looked up from the flowers. When her indigo eyes met his dark green ones she felt as if the world was spinning crazily around them, and only the two of them were holding still. How did he always manage to do this to her? He wasn't even doing anything. He was just looking at her, and yet that one look spoke volumes. He was hurt that she hadn't told him, not that he would ever say so aloud. He also understood why she hadn't, and that might even be hurting him more. "I—I'm sorr—" His finger briefly touching her lips halted her apology. Even though the touch hadn't even lasted a second, she could still feel it linger. Not for the first time she wished they were officially engaged. Slowly, without saying anything, he offered her his arm. His eyes did speak, though, and they spoke of his own apology. It wasn't until they had exited the theater that he finally spoke verbally.

"You should know by now that you are always worth my time."

* * *

I hope people enjoyed this chapter. This last part in particular was added because a certain reviewer wanted to know how Karura could like a bully like Katsu…and here's your answer: he's not always a bully! You'll find out more about him (at least a little more) in the future, but I hope this helps explain his and Karura's interactions/feelings a little more.

Last time I didn't get any response either way, and so I will ask again: would you, my readers, be interested in me posting a recording of me reading a part of this story? I've had one of my readers who I know in person suggest it, but I wanted to know if anyone else was interested, and if so, which part they would like me to read aloud. I'll post a poll on my profile about this matter, although feel free to send me your response in a review or a PM (especially if you want a specific section to be read).

Now that I've got that out there, let me add that readers and reviews (and poll takers) are welcome to some early Easter candy, flamers, on the other hand, shall be left alone with the creepy person inside the Easter Bunny costume! And with that, let us move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: BriEva (As always, thanks for your lovely reviews. As a small reminder, though, this story is set just before the third Shinobi War...not during...it's a minor detail, though, but since you brought it up, I figure I should as well. And yes, you are right, Sasori definitely knows something is up with her eyes, and you are also right about the two options available to him, though you'll have to wait to see which option he goes with. You won't find out what will happen with Gaara until Sakura returns to her time. This chapter should sum up Sakura's reaction to Kirsche's foresight. As to the Akatsuki...we will both have to wait to find out, because whether or not they make much of an appearance depends on where I take things in this story and whether or not I do a Shippuden arc...and as to the rest of your questions...you'll just have to wait to find out), Genuinely-Unique (I'm glad I can get you so riled up), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (perhaps I'm not as good at not writing cliff hangers as I thought...but oh well, no offense taken. I do love writing cliffies after all), flacaurmama (Here's your update, and I hope you continue to enjoy), & Dreams-Wishes-Hopes (and thank you for the Mary Poppins reference) for reviewing!


	35. A Bit of a Bumpy Start

Disclaimer: Fool you once, shame on me, fool you 35 times…well, I'd think you know better than that by now.

Chapter 35: A Bit of a Bumpy Start

Sakura awoke to a vague feeling of having just had a nightmare, but all she could remember was the gleam of a Kunai in the moonlight and a bunny-shaped cloud—everything else was pure emotional meaninglessness. Sakura blinked her eyes open, but everything was dark. She couldn't move. For a moment Sakura's dream terror transferred to her reality—all she knew was that she wasn't in the dancehall watching Karura's ballet performance anymore. A deep gurgle came from her right, and if Sakura could have, she would have jumped in fright—she settled for struggling against whatever was restraining her.

"Kura?" came a groggy whisper from her left. Sakura froze, recognizing the voice in the same instant she recognized that her 'restraints' were nothing but a blanket. Turning to one side Sakura found herself face-to-face with a bleary-eyed Karura. Slowly, as if not really awake, Karura reached out one hand to pull the pink haired child into a hug. "Shhh, it's okay," the motherly girl mumbled, "we're here, you're safe." Behind her Sakura heard that same gurgle again, but this time she recognized it for what it was: Youko snoring. Sakura tried to ask a question, but Karura shushed her again, then mumbled, her eyes flickering closed, "Sleep…" And Sakura did.

When Sakura next awoke it was to a room still dark, but much less scary. This time she knew where she was and there had been no nightmare to rile up her emotions—there had been no dreams at all. Worming her way out of the cocoon of blankets that, she guessed, Karura had wrapped her in, Sakura carefully maneuvered herself off the bed without waking either of the two sleeping girls. Since she was already near the curtains Sakura decided to peak out. It was dark outside as well, but the light of predawn was settled on the barely discernable horizon. Letting the curtain fall back in place, Sakura tiptoed out of the room and made her way to the restroom. She was just finishing up and returning to the hallway when she heard a sound for the second time that morning that made her jump.

Swiveling around, Sakura nearly tripped over her own feet in an attempt to find the source of the noise. She would have fallen over if a hand hadn't grabbed her by the arm, steadying her. "Wha—" before Sakura could get any more of her question out, a hand covered her mouth and she was shushed for the third time that morning.

"It's just me," Sakura's eyes widened as she recognized Cha'ri's voice. Sakura would have asked what the girl was doing walking around in the dark scaring her like that, but Cha'ri's hand hadn't moved as she whispered conspiratorially, "Let's go downstairs, where we won't wake anyone up." Only after Sakura nodded did the older girl remove her hand from her mouth while her other hand, the one on her arm, slid down to take her hand. The brunet led the pink haired child down the stairs soundlessly, but it wasn't until they entered the dimly lit lounge area that she realized that there was something wrong with Cha'ri. A part of this realization was the fact that the brunet's stance was tense; however a larger part of it was her silence. If yesterday was any indication, the brown-eyed girl never quit speaking. Even if Cha'ri was being considerate of people sleeping, she should have been chattering by now.

"Cha'ri?" Sakura questioned, her hand lightly squeezing the older girl's, "Are you alright?"

Cha'ri stopped moving and released her hand. There was a moment of silence, then the older girl's shoulders moved, as if she were bracing herself for something, then she turned around quickly and smiled brilliantly. "A'course I am!" The smile was brilliant, and the girl's voice was chipper, but Sakura had seen enough of Kirsche's smile variants to recognize a fake smile when she saw it. The girl's voice sounded sincere, but the smile gave her away…as did the large bruise on one side of her face.

Without waiting to hear any more lies, Sakura turned right back around and ran upstairs, not caring if she woke anyone. When she came dashing back down the stairs, two books in hand, she found Cha'ri still standing where she had left her, only now the girl's brown eyes were wide open in shock. Sakura rushed to one of the lamps in the room and opened one of her books to the back, skimming until she found what she was looking for, then flipped to half-way through the book.

Cha'ri called her name questioningly, but Sakura waited to respond until she had found what she was looking for. When she did, she flipped the book over and set it on the table to save the page and only then looked up. "You're not okay, so don't lie!"

Cha'ri looked taken aback. "Wha' are you—oh…" the brunet trailed off, one hand rising to, but not touching, her cheek, "…ya' mean this?" Sakura nodded, then quickly turned to her second book as the girl added, "I'm fine, really!" Sakura ignored the girl's blatant lie as she skimmed through the index. "What 'cha doin'?"

Sakura flipped through pages of her second book as she answered, "I'm helping, that's what." And then, when she found what she was looking for, she extrapolated, "I'm going to make a poultice." she sounded the world out carefully, unsure if she was pronouncing it right—if she wasn't, Cha'ri didn't correct her. "That book," she continued, motioning with her elbow in the direction of the upturned book on the table, "is a first-aid book I got for my birthday and it tells you how to make poultices, and this one," Sakura nodded at the book she was still paging through, "is one I bought because the lady at the bookstore said I wouldn't understand it. It's called 'Herbs: Healers and Killers', and it has a section on plants that can help bruises heal—Ah, here it is: Arnica. Hmm…that sounds familiar…but where…?"

"Prob'ly…" Cha'ri interrupted, something a little off about her voice that Sakura couldn't place, something that made her look up from her book. The brunet continued in that slightly off sort of way, "…it's 'cause the inn lady has a vase of Arnica in the main dining room—five of 'em, actually."

"Really?" Sakura asked, although now that the older girl mentioned it, she thought she had heard Megumi say something about that once. "Do you know what they look like, then? The book doesn't have any pictures." Slowly Cha'ri nodded, and then, without warning, the girl started laughing.

"You're too much, Kura!" The brown-eyed girl didn't bother explaining what that meant as she swiftly changed the subject, "So, how many flowers does your poultice recipe call for? I'll go get 'em." Sakura noticed distantly that the girl's pronunciation of 'poultice' was slightly different, but she didn't get to ask about it before the girl was leaning over her shoulder and saying, "Hmm, three tablespoons…let's double that. Be right back." And then she was gone in a swirl of skirts. It was only in that moment that Sakura realized the girl was already fully dressed even though the sun wasn't even up yet. Why was that…and more importantly, why did she have a bruise on her face? Sakura was determined to find out, no matter what the girl did to try to avoid the subject.

Mere moments later Cha'ri came back, but instead of carrying flowers in her hands, she had a cup of steaming water (which, Sakura soon found out, already contained the yellow flower heads) and a hand towel. "Now we just need t' wait for it t' cool," the older girl chirped.

Sakura almost asked her how she knew that, but then she realize two things, the first being that the girl had probably read it when she'd looked over her shoulder, and the second was that Cha'ri was likely trying to steer her away from asking what she had just set herself to ask. Setting her herb book down by the first aid book, Sakura straightened her stance and asked bluntly, "Cha'ri, what happened?" When the talkative girl didn't immediately answer, she added, "Did someone hit you?"

To Sakura's surprise, Cha'ri chuckled and rubbed the side of her face that wasn't bruised. "I s'pose you could say that…people aren't very friendly here, are they?" Then, with as much warning as Cha'ri ever gave, the brunet changed the subject slightly as her eyes narrowed and started to bore into Sakura, "No one's hit you, have they? I mean, ya did say the other day that you were injured." And now they had just breached a subject Sakura did not care to talk about.

Shrugging but unable to meet the brunets eyes, Sakura tried to state calmly, as if it wasn't a big deal, "I was out playing with Keiko—she's a girl I met here—and I got hurt…" Unsure of how to explain her injury without bringing up the taboo topic, Sakura skipped over how she got hurt to finally meet the older girl's eyes and say with quite a bit more enthusiasm than before, "…but don't worry! Aniki made the medics heal me…although I don't remember that part…" this Sakura mumbled more to herself than her new friend, "but anyhow, because of that," Sakura continued, completely missing the narrow-eyed look Cha'ri sent her, "unlike you, I really am fine—or I will be tomorrow when I can take the silly bandages off." Finally Sakura noticed the now-wide-eyed searching look the brunet was giving her—as if she thought, correctly, that something was off about Sakura's statement. Sakura decided it was about time to pull a Cha'ri herself. "Hey, do you think it's cool enough yet."

One side of the older girl's face twitched with a poorly suppressed grin. "I s'pose," she drawled, one finger dipping into the cup to retrieve some of the now waterlogged mush, "can ya bring the towel closer so I don't drip on the table?" Sakura raced to obey. Once the goopy mess was on the towel Sakura quickly consulted her first aid book, then picked up the poultice and told Cha'ri to sit down so she could reach her face. Once again Cha'ri seemed to find this funny, but she complied, reminding Sakura as she did so not to get anything in her eyes or mouth. "Somehow," the girl joked gaily as Sakura let the older girl's hand replace hers on the damp cloth, "I don't think this would taste any good."

"You'd be right about that—not to mention it's poisonous when ingested." For the third time that morning, Sakura jumped in surprise and spun around. Apparently Megumi had entered the room at some point during their conversation and was now looking the two of them over. Cha'ri didn't look surprised, so she must have seen the inn matron enter, but she did look a bit worried. Sakura didn't understand why until Megumi added with one eyebrow raised, "So this is where my flowers vanished to." Cha'ri mustn't have asked permission before she took the herbs. Thankfully, Megumi didn't seem angry. "Well, at least you're putting them to good use. Are either of you going to explain why any of this is necessary?"

Cha'ri shrugged and stood up, one hand holding the poultice in place. "I got banged around a bit—nothin' too bad, though. Kura just went herbalist on me, so it looks worse th'n it is. I s'pose that I should go wake my mom up—said she had a morn'n appointment." With a wave, the girl left. Sakura distantly noted that Cha'ri was missing the skip in her step that had been present yesterday.

"Poor kid…" Megumi said with a sigh, then turned to Sakura and raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to answer my question, or did she not tell you either?"

After a moment of confusion, Sakura answered, "She said the people around here aren't nice…and that's how she got hit…or something like that."

Megumi sighed again and placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "If she said that…she's probably lying…or at least not telling the full truth. She never left the inn yesterday, so she couldn't have run into any of those people who hate foreigners. Her father on the other hand…"

Sakura cocked her head to one side in question, but Megumi only shook her head. "Perhaps I'm thinking too much about it." The hand on Sakura's shoulder moved to give her a pat on the back and then was removed entirely to grab the leftover water. "I'll clean this up, Kura, so would you please run upstairs and wake Youko for me? She has less than an hour to get to the hospital for her shift. If you can, let Karura sleep. She doesn't have anything this morning."

* * *

Ten minutes later Sakura had directed the still half-asleep (but thanks to Sakura, entirely dressed) Youko down the stairs. She would have followed the sleepwalker if she hadn't heard a nearby door open. Turning to look back, she saw Cha'ri trying to close the door to the room she shared with her parents silently. Once that was done she met Sakura's eyes and smiled, the poultice still held to her cheek. Without making a noise, Cha'ri glided to where Sakura was still standing and then bent over to whisper in her ear, "Don't think I said it earlier…so thanks."

Sakura smiled up to the older girl and was preparing to say something about it being no problem when she heard yet another door open. Instinctively Sakura turned to see who it was and found Shin staring at her and the brunet leaning over her. He approached them quickly, a look in his eye that Sakura couldn't quite place. Completely ignoring Cha'ri, he spoke quietly but assertively, "Kura, my uncle said that you could come watch us this morning if you would like. We will be doing some of the most intricate work today. If you want to come, though, you have to hurry. My uncle expects us in five minutes."

"Really?!" Sakura gasped, remembering only at the last moment to whisper. Although Shin wouldn't know it, she had watched grown up Shin work on wood a few times. Although she had never understood anything about the process, it was fun to watch something beautiful be made from something mundane. She also knew Shin wasn't one to often offer to let people watch him work. "I'll be right back!" With that Sakura dashed into her room to change as quickly as possible. By the time she raced back out of her room dressed in shorts, a long sleeved shirt with cuts in the arms and the necklace Megumi had given her, she found Shin outright glaring at Cha'ri who was going down the stairs two at a time while trying to hold back her laughter.

Sakura stared at Shin until he turned to catch her eye. She had never seen her daddy—no, her dad—or even young Shin glare before. Whatever Cha'ri had done or said…Sakura didn't think she wanted to find out what it was. Instead of asking, Sakura skipped up to Shin and put a smile on her face. "Lead the way, fearless leader!"

To Sakura's immense relief, that made Shin crack a smile—a small one, but it was a smile none the less. In the hour that followed the tenseness in his shoulders vanished as he began to create art in the form of furniture. By the time Karura came to get her, his foul mood had almost entirely vanished.

* * *

Sakura and Karura were halfway to the hospital for the injured girl's check-up when Karura asked out of the blue, "So, who was that boy you were speaking to?"

Sakura's immediate reaction was to tilt her head to the side and ask in an almost disbelieving voice, "You mean Shin?"

"No," was the sandy-haired girl's immediate response, "I was talking about this morning, right after you pushed my loud-mouthed best friend out of the room. I…uh…happened to wake up and overhear you, Shin, and that boy through the door…and I was just wondering…" Karura's voice trailed off when she saw Sakura's face shift from confusion, to understanding, to bemusement, all within a few short seconds. "What is it?" Karura finally asked, sounding as if she were afraid of the answer.

Stifling a giggle, Sakura responded, "That was Cha'ri…and she's the girl in the room next to mine."

"Oh, I—wait! That was a girl?" It took all of Sakura's effort to not burst out laughing, and it clearly showed on her face. Karura scowled good naturedly at her pink-haired friend and responded, "It didn't sound like a girl to me…and it certainly makes much less sense." When Sakura gave her a questioning look, Karura explained, "I mean Shin's reaction. I thought for sure it was jealousy."

"Why would Shin be jealous?" Sakura asked naïvely.

Without warning Karura stopped walking to stare at her, "You mean you haven't…?"

"Haven't what?"

Karura turned pink and unconsciously rubbed one arm. "Well, if you haven't…then I suppose I shouldn't say anything. And before you ask, it's because it's not my place to say anything that you don't already know. Please don't ask me any more than that."

What followed was a long awkward silence that wasn't even broken by the continuation of their journey to the hospital. No matter how hard Sakura tried, she couldn't come up with a good reason for Shin to be jealous of Cha'ri and so she decided that her original assumption must be correct after all. "You know…" Sakura began wearily five minutes into their walk, "…Cha'ri likes to talk…so she probably said something that Shin didn't like."

Karura's response was to say 'mm-hmm' in such a way that it sounded as if she were humoring Sakura rather than agreeing. After ten more minutes of silence, they reached the hospital and Karura informed the glowering old lady at the front desk that they had an appointment with a Dr. Maki. After another minute of silence, the man with the clipboard from Sakura's last (conscious) visit to the hospital called her back to be examined. Karura never took her eyes off the man as he did his job, almost as if she expected him to start whacking at her pink haired friend again. Thankfully he didn't. Instead, after about a half hour and the arrival of Youko in the room, he declared Sakura healthy enough to remove her bandages, and then promptly left as if rabid dogs were chasing him.

With Youko and Karura's help, the binding on Sakura's chest was removed, much to her relief and soon all three of them were exiting the building. "I'm so tired!" Youko exclaimed enthusiastically, "I love working here, but I hate having long shifts! It was even worse than normal today, since right away this morning three men came in with a number of minor injuries and a major case of drugs or poison in their blood—don't know which or what kind though, they shooed me out of the room before I could find out. Anyhow, it was a long day and I'm so glad I'm off now!" Skipping ahead a few feet, Youko turned to face her two friends while walking backwards. "Hey, let's swing by the markets before we head home. I've heard that there are some amazing sales today."

Karura shrugged, "I don't mind, but I can't stay too long. I have another performance tonight." After saying this Karura's eyes widened and after a moment, a soft smile came onto her face as she added, "Oh, that reminds me, I don't think I told you, but Katsu came to my performance last night."

Recognizing the mean Gaara-lookalike's name, Sakura stopped walking, surprised that Karura sounded happy to see the bully. Youko was surprised at this news as well, but she showed it in a much less dignifying manner; namely, she tripped. Had not Karura been right there to catch her, Youko would have fallen flat on her face. Instead both she and Karura fell in a heap on the ground—a heap that was soon laughing at their own klutziness. Neither of them noticed Sakura's reaction to the name until after they were righted and Sakura asked if the big bully had hurt Karura.

Youko apparently found this hilarious and soon was bent over laughing again. Meanwhile Karura first looked shocked, stumbling out some incoherent question around the lines of 'You, why, think, what', and then, a few moments later, a look of recognition took the surprise off her face. "Oh, Kura," the blond crooned, giving her a one armed hug, "No, he didn't hurt me—he never would. I forgot…you met him at the police station under the worst of circumstances." Suddenly the one armed hug became a two armed hug and the older girl started rocking from side to side, as if Sakura were about to burst out crying and needed the extra comfort. "Katsu isn't usually that harsh…he really did deserve to be kicked that day…but you have to understand, he's just overly protective of Suna and has issues with foreigners."

In the background Sakura could hear Youko mumble something about a big stick being stuck someplace, but Karura's glare cut her off before she could finish. Karura continued as if she weren't glaring kunai at the still laughing Youko, "You see, his little sister was killed by some guy from Ame about five years ago…and then three years ago while he was on a mission with his mother and two others his mother was captured by a mixed group of rogue ninja…they got her back and completed the mission, but…neither she nor he were ever the same again." By this point Youko had stopped laughing and had come to lace her arms around Karura, whose voice now sounded very sad.

"There, there, Karu-Chi…let's not think about those sad things." And then, as quickly as Youko's moment of seriousness had come, it passed, and soon the grey-eyed girl had released Karura only to grab one of her hands and one of Sakura's while exclaiming, "And I know just the way to keep those kinds of thoughts far away: shopping!" And with that, Youko dashed off, dragging the two of them along.

* * *

After an hour of fighting off crowds for the perfect shoe, or bag, or shirt, Karura was able to escape Youko's clutches with her excuse of needing to go to the ballet studio. Sakura however, was not so lucky. Youko dragged her from sale to sale, hour after hour, and it wasn't until the exuberant preteen fell into a heated discussion with a woman twice her age (about which was better, skirt-pants or hat-scarfs and whether frills and lace had any place on spandex) that Sakura was finally able to slip away from the shopping maniac.

Once outside, the pink haired child sighed in relief and leaned against the shop's wall, thankful for the long shadow it casted. There was probably only a few hours left before sundown, but it was still hot out, and every day seemed to be getting hotter. At least it was cooler out here than in the crowded shop—sadly, it was just as loud, though. Across the street someone from one of the nearby shops was shouting about all the special deals that they had going on. Two doors down from there at least ten people were yelling back and forth in what sounded like an argument over politics. Conversations about which 'candidate' were more closely related to 'The First' was boring, though, so Sakura didn't even bother trying to listen in. Instead she left her ears unoccupied as she stared around at all the people surrounding her—and that was how she caught the faint call of "exotic teas" floating in the wind.

Thinking of Cha'ri, Sakura pushed away from the wall to follow the sound as best she could with all the ruckus going on around her. If the voice belonged to the brunet's mother, she wanted to ask her if she knew who had hit the girl. Sakura had almost pinpointed where the call for tea was coming from when the call quit coming. Perhaps a customer had come to the tea stall, but Sakura couldn't be sure. Looking around, Sakura hoped to catch sight of Cha'ri—or an older woman who looked like Cha'ri—but there were too many brunets around, and none of them was holding a teapot.

It was then that a flash of red caught Sakura's eye. The pink haired child swiveled around, only to see the red flash disappear around a corner. It was impossible to say whether or not it had been Aniki. Torn, Sakura glanced back in the direction she had last heard the call for tea come from—but that call was still silent. How long did it take people to buy tea? Sakura didn't know, but it would certainly take longer than it would to chase after the red flash. If the red head she had seen wasn't Aniki, she could return to this place easily enough…but if the red flash she had seen really was Aniki, she was sure she wouldn't get back to looking for the tea stall. Was it worth it?

Sakura was already running after the red head before she realized that she already knew the answer. Of course it was worth it. She could always find the brunet's mother at the inn (although she might not be alone so Sakura might not be able to ask her about the bruise), but Aniki was another case entirely. He was impossible to track down on purpose, and she wasn't about to let this chance to thank him for saving her get away.

The red head remained just out of sight (except for a flash here and there) throughout Sakura's entire chase, and although she had called out his name a few times, she soon realized that he wouldn't be able to hear her over the sound of the crowded market. So instead of shouting, she saved her oxygen for running (and dodging) through the crowd, trying to keep up. It was a lot harder than she originally thought it would be, this whole catching up thing—Sakura blamed it on the crowds, since she had never been unable to catch up with Aniki when he was in the renovation district. The pink haired child was so focused on avoiding running into anyone and looking for the next flash of red that she didn't realize right away that she had left the confines of the market…that is, until she tripped over a rock and fell face first into a bush near the side of the road.

Sakura's sudden disappearance went completely unnoticed by the stream of loud people on the street. By the time Sakura had arranged herself in the bush so that she was sitting in the dirt rather than eating it she had realized that she wouldn't be able to chase after the red head any more. The ankle she was now sitting on was throbbing, her hands and knees were bleeding, and tears were streaming from her eyes, turning brown where they mingled with the dirt on her face.

Sakura might have started sobbing if just then the crowd hadn't gone deathly silent. They were all turning to look in the same direction, and so Sakura followed suit. Pushing aside some of the leaves of the bush she was currently both stranded and hidden in, Sakura found a shock of red hair appearing through an opening in the crowd that hadn't been there before. To Sakura's dissatisfaction, the red head turned out to be Katsu. Next to Gaara's second lookalike was a black haired man wearing a blue hat. It took Sakura a moment to realize that this must be the Kazekage, and by that time she could see someone else coming up behind them.

The crowd was murmuring now, glaring at the tall blond haired young man with the bright blue eyes and a leaf forehead protector that was conversing with the Kazekage. For a moment Sakura thought that his face looked familiar, but all thoughts of that vanished when three more heads became visible through the enlarging hole in the crowd. There were two people with the leaf headbands further back, but Sakura barely paid them any heed, her eyes instead jumping to the young male ninja with the short cut strawberry-blond hair walking a few steps behind the other blond.

Sakura felt as if all the air had been torn out of her lungs as she realized who she was looking at.

* * *

Dun, Dun, Dunnnnn! If you pay close attention to details (and remember earlier chapters) then you probably already know who it is that Sakura has seen, but even if you do, no one knows what will happen next.

I'll try to update in two weeks (around May 9th), however Finals are coming up, and so I might not have the time to write. If that does happen, I'll make sure to update by the 16th or 17th.

**IMPORTANT:** Since I didn't get many responses I will ask again: would you, my readers, be interested in me posting a recording of me reading a part of this story? I've had one of my readers who I know in person suggest it, but I wanted to know if anyone else was interested, and if so, which part they would like me to read aloud. There is a poll on my profile about this matter, although feel free to send me your response in a review or a PM (especially if you want a specific section to be read).

As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome, but flamers beware! Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Helena and the Moonstone (Thanks for telling me you changed your name from Skadi Jotunn. I understand your difficulties regarding access to internet…I had my own fair share of that in the past, so I know it can be annoying. As to a Sakura/Sasori story…if I find the time to write it, I'll try to remember to let you know. Also, thanks for being one of the few to answer my question about the recording and for your compliment about my drawings.), BriEva (Wow, someone else beat you to the first review…that's a big shock! I hope you enjoyed this explanation for Katsu's anti-foreigner jerk-y-ness. As to the dream…all I can say is 'wait for the next chapter'…and, if you really want to…keep think up reasons for why Sasori might lash out. As to Sakura's family…well, I'll likely be putting in a bit about Junko and her reasoning, however aside from some hints here and there, I think I'll leave a lot of the main family baggage untouched—at least in part because a lot of people reading this haven't read ACC and I don't want to ruin it for them), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (…and I'm back to the cliff hangers…although, like I mentioned above, if you pay attention it should be fairly obvious who it is…), & flacaurmama (thank you for your input on the recording…and don't worry, you spelled Kirsche correctly) for reviewing!


	36. A Dream Come True

Disclaimer: I own this story…but not a number of its characters…

Chapter 36: A Dream Come True

_Sakura felt as if all the air had been torn out of her lungs as she realized who she was looking at._

"Father?" Sakura whispered disbelievingly, the word falling from her mouth before she even realized she was saying it. Someone's head in the crowd moved to block her view of the young man with the strawberry-blond hair that greatly resembled the boy in her father's genin photo. Ignoring the pain in her hands, knees and ankle, Sakura tried to shift herself out of the bush to get a better look, but all she managed to do was hook one of her sleeved on a branch and hit her ankle on some unseen object. By the time she freed herself and had wiped more tears off her face, the procession had nearly disappeared from view. The crowd was starting to murmur again as they proceeded to follow after their leader and his guests—from what Sakura could catch of their words, they were both intrigued and distrustful at the same time.

Sakura tried to stand, to get a better view of the group's retreating backs—of the father she had never seen outside of his photo—but her ankle wouldn't hold her. She would have fallen back into the bush if a hand hadn't caught her arm.

"I don't know which one you were looking at, but they were all too young to be your father."

Had Sakura been capable of doing so, she would have jumped in surprise, but between her ankle and the hand holding her up by the arm, she only managed to twitch in a comical fashion. Although Sakura was ecstatic to realize that she had finally found Aniki, her emotions were overwhelmed by the fact that she had just lost her chance to meet her father…assuming, of course, that that was who the strawberry-blond had been. Unbidden tears started pouring down Sakura's cheeks as she stared after the vanishing crowd, wishing she could follow as well. "He has to be my father…" Sakura whimpered—whether to herself or Aniki, Sakura didn't know. "He has to be…"she continued, not even noticing that Aniki was staring at her with a strange look in his eye, "he looks just like the photo that mommy tried to get rid of—"

Sakura might have continued listing reasons for the Konoha ninja to be her father, but Aniki interrupted pertly, "I doubt they are exactly the same." Sakura looked up at him questioningly, the tears still streaming down her face even though she wasn't whimpering anymore. It was almost as if the tears were a conditional response.

The red head rolled his eyes and answered her unasked question as he picked her up out of the bush and set her back on the now deserted road, "As I said, they are too young to be your father. It is impossible." And then he paused, taking in her expression, an expression which stated quite clearly that, no matter what he said and how impossible it was, she wanted to believe she had met her father. Too bad for her, the red head wasn't one to care what other people did or did not want to believe.

"Don't look at me like that, brat, and quit wasting water…" Sakura's first attempt to wipe her face ended with her nearly losing her balance on her one good leg (and she would have returned to the bush if Aniki's hand hadn't kept her upright). After that the little pink haired girl determinedly swiped at her eyes again and again, despite her lack of balance, until the waterworks stopped. Only after she had obeyed his second command did she return her unwavering gaze back to him, her expression the same as it had been before—which completely went against his first command.

* * *

If Aniki had been the smiling sort, he would have been doing so now, if only for the absurdity of the situation. Few people had the guts to stand up to him, and usually those who did soon backed off when he glared at them as he was now glaring at the stubborn girl before him. As he had noticed more than once before, though, his glare had no effect on the pink haired annoyance.

With eyes still leaking, the young Hoshi crossed her arms across her chest and announced with more confidence than she clearly felt, "You're wrong. He has to be my father because he looks just like the picture…" and then, as if just remembering something, her gaze became even less confident as she added, "…or at least…I think so…" And then, much to the preteen's irritation, she started blabbering. "Kirsche left it behind when we came here…and he might not be the same age as in the photo…and since I don't have it I can't compare them, but…"

With one red eyebrow all but twitching, Aniki interrupted harshly, "But nothing. He—whichever one you think he is—is too young. End of story." When that determined light in her blue eyes didn't go away, he sighed, shifting his gaze out to the deserted space all around them. Only when he was certain that there was no one around to hear did he speak. "Even if he does turn out to be related to you—don't look at me like that, it's impossible for him to be your father, but a brother or some such isn't—but either way it's better for the both of you if you act as if you are not." When wide blue eyes only stared up at him questioningly, Aniki felt like ramming her head into the ground. It was so obvious, and yet the child standing before him was clearly oblivious to the world around her.

"You are a Half." Aniki stated irritably, ignoring her gasp of surprise. "You have done well to keep it hidden so far, but I'm not an idiot, and if your father really is from Konoha, you would be better off continuing to hide your heritage. We might not be at war with them yet, but it is coming—not even peace-minded representatives will change that. The Kazekage is a fool to think that it might." Noticing that bitterness was making it into his voice, the red head paused and shook his head before finishing in a much calmer voice, "Anyhow, most people in Suna actually care about such things, so keep your parentage to yourself if you don't want to end up dead."

For a few moments, Aniki was sure that the little girl was going to argue, but then her determined gaze faltered. "You're right…" It was almost a whisper, but the preteen heard it none the less. Pin-prick pupils glanced up at him and then back to her feet, her determined look now mixed with what might have been sadness as she added with glazed eyes, "…I think Kirsche said the same thing when we first came here…I forgot…that's why…my eyes…" He didn't bother asking what she had meant about 'her eyes'. He had seen and heard enough to put the pieces together on his own.

As the child trailed off, Aniki realized that the pink haired girl was lost in her own thoughts. This wouldn't have mattered so much if she hadn't tried to start pacing, clearly having forgotten the last time she tried to take a step. This time Aniki didn't bother stopping her from falling to the ground—if that's what it took to remind her to be careful, so be it—although he did catch her by the back of her shirt a moment before her face hit the dirt.

Hauling her up into a sitting position, Aniki turned his attention to her ankle, ignoring whatever ham brained thing the child was blabbering about now. "How did you manage this?" Aniki asked exasperatedly as he realized that she had not twisted her ankle like he had first though she had. Blood was trickling down her foot from a deep cut near her Achilles tendon. "Never mind," he added as he noticed the sliver of wood lodged in the cut, "I am going to take this out now." Pausing to glare up at her, he added sternly, "You are not going to fight me."

Aniki could tell that the brave face she gave him as she nodded her ascent was all an act from the way her entire body was shaking, but he didn't care so long as she didn't kick him in the face for the pain he was about to cause her. Surprisingly the girl didn't scream when he removed the wood from her flesh, although she did try to pull away—not that he let her. Leaning closer, Aniki examined the wound for any leftover splinters while simultaneously attempting to ignore the fact that, from the amount of sniffling going on, the brat was likely crying again. Although Aniki was nowhere near medic material, he was better at dealing with wounds than tears.

There were no splinters that the preteen could find, but despite that, the red head continued to stare at the wound. If Aniki had been anyone else, his eyebrows would have been together by now and his eyes would have been narrowed. Instead he kept his face professionally blank out of habit as he glanced back towards the bush he had taken the brat out of. There was no way that a piece of wood could have made such a clean cut. Returning his gaze to the slice, Aniki made the proper hand signs and then placed his hand over the wound—once again ignoring the sounds of distress coming from the nine-year-old—and began the long, tedious process of accelerating the regrowth of tissues. He stopped as soon as he was certain that she'd be able to walk without help. He refused to be seen carrying the girl when he was clearly off duty, and not just because of his pride. Although Aniki didn't even want to think about it, he already knew what would likely happen if certain people found out he had an interest in the brat.

Although he had once overheard the Kaneko girl gushing to her sandy-haired friend about how 'cute' they were together, there was nothing romantic about his feelings for the brat. She was interesting only because she was different, and the thought that he would allow himself to feel any emotions of the sort for a girl who would one day leave Suna and likely never return was preposterous. He knew better than that.

A wobbly-voiced question broke Aniki out of his thoughts. "What is it?"

Glancing at the brat who was still sniffling, Aniki found concern and confusion written plainly on the girls face. Strangely enough, the tears he had expected to see were nonexistent, although her eyes did gleam with tears unshed. "Is something wrong?" the child warbled out. Aniki shook his head rather than reply. There were plenty of things wrong, including the fact that she could read his emotions better than even his grandmother, but he wasn't about to tell her that. He was just about to explain to her how lucky she was to have not severed her Achilles tendon when suddenly her face fell into a look of horror as she gasped out, "Is my foot going to fall off?!"

The way the brat had said it, so serious and terrified, was almost enough to make the red head burst out laughing; and for a moment, he couldn't stop his feelings of utter astonishment and amusement from showing on his face. He swiftly ironed off the look—almost expecting the girl to point out his uncharacteristic actions as anyone else he knew would have. But she didn't. Instead, her only reaction was to pout and glare and insist that it wasn't funny—she was serious.

Aniki didn't allow himself to lose his mask a second time, although it was a close call. If he had been alone, he _might_ have let a small smile settle on his face at how annoyed she now looked…but then again, if he had been alone, he wouldn't have felt the need to laugh in the first place. Not for the first time did the red head wonder why he let the brat get under his skin so easily…and not for the first time did he tell himself he couldn't wait for her to go away for good so that he could return to normal. He didn't like feeling attached to anything.

"No, your foot is firmly attached." Aniki responded stoically before the child could say anything else to dent his armor, "You should be able to walk on it now." Rising to his own feet, Aniki ordered the girl to stand, and then rolled his eyes as she held her arms out for balance as if she expected to fall at any moment. While the pink haired child's attention was on her feet, Aniki's mahogany eyes glanced back once more to the bush he had pulled her from, memorizing the scene. He would have to come back here later once the brat wasn't with him to find out what had cut open her ankle…although he had a bad feeling he already knew what it was. He wasn't even twelve yet, but he had already seen his fair share of battle wounds…and neither broken glass nor wood shards left wounds quite the same way the sharpened metal of kunai and shuriken did.

It wasn't until Aniki started leading the pink haired annoyance back to the market that the boy actually thought to wonder why he had just helped the brat. She wasn't _that_ interesting. Sure, she was injured and lost (like she always was every time he saw her), but he had never bothered to help anyone else before. Then again, no one had ever bothered to come to him for help unless they were ordered to.

Everyone in Suna seemed to recognize him as a force to be reckoned with, as a boy too smart for his age, as the great-great-nephew (or some such) of the first Kazekage—whatever the cause, everyone knew him on sight and had expectations of him. Some people expected him to be the next Kazekage—something that he, himself, had no desire for—while other people planed for him to be the perfect killing machine that blindly obeyed every order given to him by his village—another expectation that he had no desire to live up to. Everyone in the village knew what he was capable of and they acted accordingly depending on their views; and whether they were trying to place him on a pedestal or leash him to his duties, to his village…it never changed how they treated him. No one cared about his thoughts or feelings on the matter, and if the red head was frank with himself, he was starting to hate this village that could only view him as a puppet.

And perhaps that was the reason he was so willing to help this annoying pink haired child that kept following him everywhere. She didn't seem to know a thing about him, and it might have been almost refreshing, if she wasn't a foreigner. But what _was_ surprising was that even when he had pushed her away, as he did any other foreigner who was simply too ignorant to know about him, she hadn't budged. He knew a thing or two about the Hoshi clan thanks to his grandmother, and so by now this little pacifist should have been cowering in fear of him—or shying away in disgust, depending on whether she was the kind of Hoshi who hated or feared the use of force—but she wasn't. The girl was an interesting conundrum…and Aniki would like to believe that that was the only reason why he was helping her even now. However, as he had already told himself, she wasn't _that_ interesting.

* * *

The question came out of nowhere. "Why did you kill him?" Aniki froze, his blood going cold as the pink haired child took a few more steps ahead before realizing that he had stopped. The Hoshi turned around to look at him, her face strangely unreadable as she caught his gaze and asked, "Why did you kill the baker?"

At first the red head couldn't understand why he felt a pain in his chest at her words, but with his sharp mind, his confusion didn't last long. He had thought she was different…and yet here she was, asking him the same question all of his so-called superiors had been nagging him about for the past three days. A feeling that he refused to call betrayal settled into his heart as his eyes glared heatedly down at the Hoshi. She didn't even seem to realize that this glare was different from all the others. If she had, she wouldn't have tilted her head to the side and added calmly, "You didn't have to kill him, so why did you?" She acted as if he had done something wrong…just like those old bats did.

Something inside Aniki snapped.

He didn't need her. He didn't need any of these imbeciles—not the council of elders, not the Kazekage, and certainly not some brat who dared to question him for saving her life. If they couldn't see their own deaths when it stared them in the face then they deserved to die.

It took all of Aniki's control not to act upon that thought as the ice in his veins transferred to his gaze. For the briefest of moments, he actually wished her dead as she asked agitatedly, "Why won't you answer me?"

He instantly regretted the impulse—no matter how stupid she was, she was just a civilian child. If anyone was at fault for this feeling of betrayal it was him. It was he who had let her into his life…and thus it was he, the red head decided, who would have to remove her.

Was it wrong of him to want to hurt her as much as she had hurt him? No, but it _was_ childish. Too bad for the Hoshi…he technically still was a child.

For the briefest of moments, the Hoshi looked distracted, as if there was something else around them to catch her attention. Even before those abnormal eyes returned to seeing him, Aniki had already made up his mind on how to sever this bond that he should never have let form in the first place. He would push her out of his life once and for all before her betrayal could hurt him more than it already had. He could only hope that this steadily growing pain in his heart would leave along with her. If it didn't—if this disturbingly familiar pain stayed the way the pain of his parent's death…their ultimate betrayal…had, then he might just have to once again consider cutting his own heart out.

The only outward sign of Aniki's internal struggle, aside from his cold stare, was the barest twitch of an eyebrow. Unbeknownst to him, though, that one outwards sign was more than enough for the little pink haired child to understand everything she needed to about the situation.

Aniki's hand was jabbing out with just the right amount of calculated force to push the girl off her feet and to hurt her without truly injuring her—he didn't want any reason to feel worse about this situation than he already did—but in that same instance, the child was moving as well. The moment Aniki realized that she was coming closer—that his hand would now make contact with her head rather than her shoulder—he almost froze as twenty different outcomes flew before his mind. None of the outcomes ended well. He couldn't pull back the blow enough not to cause a concussion—or worse—and he didn't want to hurt her—not really—not even if this movement of hers was an attempt to attack him. There was only one thing he could do.

With this realization and a jerk at the last possible moment, Aniki's arm thrust above the girl's head instead of into it. For a moment the young genius's mind went blank, and it wasn't until he heard the brat sobbing out apologies into his chest as she hugged him that Aniki realized just how wrong his assumptions about her were. She wasn't attacking him, she wasn't betraying him…

"It's my fault, isn't it?"

…she wasn't even blaming him... Did she even realize what he had almost done? Did she even realize that her sudden movement could have cost her her life?

"It's because of me, that you—you…" her voice trailed off as she buried her face even further in his shirt, her arms tightening around him. Aniki was at a loss for what to do. He had no idea what could have made the brat think it was a good idea to throw herself at a ninja—she had to know by now that he was a ninja, since he hadn't exactly hidden his talents—and he definitely had no idea why the girl was crying when he hadn't hit her, let alone what to do about it. Despite all of his smarts and all of his talent, the child genius had no way of knowing what was going on in the girl's head.

The brat was an enigma, and even when she finally stopped sobbing and pulled away from his now-wet shirt to finish the statement she had begun earlier, he still couldn't figure her out.

* * *

Sakura looked up through watery eyes at her older-brother-like figure, feeling as if her heart had been torn to pieces. Although she had dreamed about this event just a few days ago, she had never expected things to pan out the way they had. Only now that the brief déjà vu-like moment was over did the youth understand that the only reason she hadn't just lost Aniki was because her dream had saved her.

When she had been having the dream, Sakura had thought that she had looked to the side because there was something there that had captured her attention, but there hadn't been anything there other than the setting sun, and not even that had been what had made her break eye contract with Aniki. Only now did Sakura realize that she never would have looked at the sun if she hadn't wondered what it was that she was looking at in the dream. And Sakura knew from Kirsche's lectures about Natures Light (the ones that she had only ever half listened to) that if she hadn't looked at the sun, she wouldn't have Seen anything (something about sunlight making their abilities work better). And thanks to the visions that had flooded her sight, Sakura knew that if she hadn't Seen anything, she would have lost everything.

She never would have questioned Aniki if she had known what cruel things people had been saying to him about his having killed the monster baker. Although she still couldn't understand what he had said in her dream about 'it being better that way' and 'not needing anyone', Sakura did now understand that what had set him off—what had made him strike out at her—was her own careless question. If she had known that adults were bullying him because he had saved her life, she wouldn't have said anything. Perhaps this was what Kirsche had meant when she had said that, just because someone can do something, it doesn't mean that they should.

Even worse…she now knew that he had truly saved her life—not that she hadn't known before…but this was different. The moment her eyes had met the sun she had witnessed her own death five times directly at the hand of the baker and another seven times due to her injuries after Aniki had come to save her. Only once did she live…and that, only under the circumstances of what had really happened…if the baker didn't die as soon as Aniki arrived, then she died. There apparently was no other option.

"You had to kill him…" Sakura croaked, fighting back more tears, "Because of me…you had to kill him…you didn't have a choice…because of me…" And now the tears were falling again. She wailed right on through them, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Again and again she apologized, not even noticing that Aniki's eyes were widening and that his true emotions were flashing through his eyes more visibly than they ever had before. There was shock, confusion, pity, regret, self-loathing, and a whole slew of other emotions that, had Sakura thought to actually look, she would have seen and recognized immediately. But she didn't look up again—she couldn't—not with how terrible she was feeling.

It was her fault that the baker was now dead…and Aniki was now being bullied because of her…and then she had hurt him by insinuating that he shouldn't have saved her life. Sakura hated herself for all of this, but even more so, she hated herself because she was glad that Aniki had chosen her life over his own comfort. She had Seen Aniki be directly ordered not to kill the baker and she had Seen how less hectic his life would have been if he had obeyed…and yet he had chosen her. He had chosen her…and she was thankful for it...but at the same time, it disgusted her—no—she disgusted herself. She now knew that, despite what she had told Aniki right before everything had erupted, she could never again say that the baker shouldn't have been killed.

Although it sickened her to her core, Sakura realized that she enjoyed living too much to even wish that Aniki had spared the baker.

She was glad the baker had died.

And somehow, Sakura felt like that made her the worst person in the world.

A hand came down heavily on her head, forcing Sakura out of her self-loathing thoughts as well as forcing her to look up. Blinking in confusion, Sakura found Aniki's face less than an inch from her own. As was usual, his face was unreadable, however his eyes were smoldering—with what emotion, she wasn't sure, but it was there. The pink haired girl barely got out a 'wh—' of question before Aniki cut her off.

"You," he began, his voice harsh and clipped in a tone that made it seem as if he were raising his voice at her even though he wasn't, "are an idiot."

* * *

And so, Sakura's dream came true...too bad it was a dream she didn't want to happen...but at least it ended well for her...well, mostly. I hope you liked this chapter, and sorry for the wait. Between dead week, finals, and work, I didn't have enough time to post this chapter last week. I'll try to update again in two weeks (around May 30th). Also, I'm seriously thinking about writing that Sakura/Sasori AU story I told people about.

Originally this chapter wasn't going to be written in Sasori's POV (it was going to be all from Sakura's POV)...but then...it just sort of happened. 'Aniki' just sort of wrote himself in there and refused to leave...so I left it like that. The next chapter which I've begun writing is also written from the POV of someone who I originally didn't think I would be writing as...but once again, it just sort of happened.

**IMPORTANT:** Since I didn't get many responses I will ask again: would you, my readers, be interested in me posting a recording of me reading a part of this story? I've had one of my readers who I know in person suggest it, but I wanted to know if anyone else was interested, and if so, which part they would like me to read aloud. There is a poll on my profile about this matter, although feel free to send me your response in a review or a PM (especially if you want a specific section to be read).

_To the anonymous reviewer itachimaniac_: I cannot respond to reviews on my old stories that are anonymous since there is no way to contact you. If you really want me to respond to you, please either get an account and PM me, or write a review on this story.

As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to enjoy the production...flamers, on the other-hand, are banned. Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: BriEva (I'm glad you knew...or thought you knew...about who she saw. There is definitely something going on with Cha'ri...and Cha'ri definitely has some secrets that will be revealed before Sakura returns to her time...I won't be saying what those secrets are, but you are free to keep guessing. As to Kirsche's reaction, you'll have to wait a bit to see that. Shin's reactions are fun to write—if you like seeing Shin's reactions too, I think you'll enjoy the next chapter. As to Katsu...yes, I've been developing his character...and yes, Sakura really doesn't like meeting up with him...although I don't know if it will happen yet...I can envision Sakura kicking Katsu in the shins when he's the Kazekage just for old times sake. Also, since I haven't heard from you yet, I was wondering if you had an opinion about me making a recording of a portion of this story—as mentioned above under 'important'), Geniusly-Unique (I find your guesswork very interesting. Keep it up. Also, it's okay if you've forgotten most of ACC/CCR, since this is only a sister story, not a continuation), MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan (thanks for your vote...and I understand the whole being busy thing. I'm just glad to hear from you), & RtheAwesome (That was in response to another review, and as this chapter points out, although there are definitely feelings involved as it concerns 'Aniki', neither his nor Sakura's are of the romantic sort. I might eventually write a oneshot or some such, though, that is Sasori/Sakura) for reviewing!


	37. The Difference Between

Disclaimer: If I owned…I'd think it'd show…somewhere on the cover…

Chapter 37: The Difference Between Jealousy and Overprotectiveness

Shin carefully navigated the late-market crowd, looking for his sister and their pink haired friend. He was not in a good mood. It had all started that morning with that tea seller. Although Shin couldn't explain why, everything about the brunet rubbed him the wrong way—her voice, her attitude, and the way she treated others—especially Kura, who she treated differently from everyone else. The thirteen-year-old was loud and talkative, seemingly expressive and outgoing…everything that Shin was not. But he wasn't jealous, despite what Karura had hinted at when she had come to pick up Kura. Shin had no reason to envy the brunet her personality; not only was he quite content with his own, but he also felt that the brunet's personality was a sham.

Whenever the girl smiled, Shin always felt as if she was actually laughing at them all and whenever she asked seemingly ordinary questions, he always got the feeling that she was snooping; and on more than one occasion Shin had caught the brunet dropping her smile the moment a person turned their back on her, as if her smile had never been genuine in the first place. Of course, Shin's logical mind was aware that there could be plenty of explanations for all of these characteristics that only he seemed to notice, however he never managed to convince his heart of that. Although the brunet had never actually done anything to him (and she even seemed to truly like Kura, unlike everyone else he had seen the brunet interacted with), Shin just couldn't bring himself to trust her. Heck, he couldn't bring himself to even marginally like her. Once again, he had no good reason to feel that way, but he did.

The fact that the foreigner had all but said she would 'protect' Kura from him didn't help his feelings any.

No, Shin did not like the young tea merchant—and his dislike had been reaffirmed just moments ago when he had run into the brunet at the market. She had been as 'friendly' as always, but something about her claim to have come this far from the inn only to bring her mother something she had forgotten sounded false to Shin's ears. Of course, he had no reason to disbelieve her—and even if it weren't true (and his gut feeling told him that it wasn't), Shin knew that the teen had just as much right to visit the market as anyone else did. He had no good reason to think that the tea seller was a liar let alone any reason to wish that the brunet was nowhere near the market's vicinity. Once again, though, he did.

Shin was thrust from his brooding thoughts when a conglomeration of shoppers pushed past him rudely and tried to pile into a clothing shop that was already bursting to the seams with people. Shin raised an eyebrow at the people's actions, not understanding how anyone could be so desperate to spend money. Shrugging, Shin moved past the store whose sign proclaimed sales up to 90% off, not even bothering to scan the crowd for his sister. Although Youko was a shopping maniac, even she would know better than to risk her neck in a crowd like that—no limited quantity brand name item was worth that—not to mention she should have Kura with her to think about as well. His beloved sister might be a shopaholic with no sense of fashion, but she was neither stupid nor uncaring. She would never drag their green eyed friend into a store where she was likely to be trampled.

The grey eyed boy had just reached the edge of the market without any sight of Youko when an unfamiliar voice caught his attention. "You! Hey, you!" Turning to look, he found a little old lady carrying a bag almost as big as her. For a moment he thought that she had called out to him because she needed help carrying her bag, but what she said next completely erased that thought from his mind. "Are you still looking for your little friend?" Before Shin could ask the granny if she was mistaking him for someone else, the old woman was wagging her finger at him as if he were a misbehaving child. "I told you, girlie—" It was in this instance that Shin realized that the old woman was mistaking him for his twin. "—I told you not to run around like a headless lizard. You'll never find your friend that way. Good thing for you Granny Miko has a head on her shoulders."

If Shin hadn't had a bad feeling he knew who the 'lost friend' was, he might have interrupted the old woman to fix her misunderstanding and perhaps even have asked where she had last seen his sister. Instead he was rooted on the spot, his face impassive as his heartbeat sped up and dread start to worm its way into his mind. Kura was lost again—and last time she had gotten lost, she had nearly been killed. The grandmother continued, unaware of his inner turmoil, "I asked around, you see, and no one's seen a girl like that around here for hours, but one kid did tell me he saw her headed towards the gate. She probably went to see the Kazekage and that useless aid of his—what was his name again? Kazu? Eh, doesn't matter—he's nothing compared to Chiyo's boy. Anyhow, since she's a foreigner, she probably went to see those other foreigners that the Kazekage went to greet. If you hurry, you might just catch her."

Shin bowed, thanking the woman much more politely than the old woman's earlier encounter with Youko had led her to expect, and then he was gone. Finding Youko was no longer his main concern. Strangely enough, though, it was Youko who he found first, now that he was no longer looking for her.

His twin was crouched behind a large boulder, her back to him as she glanced around the edge as if she were playing hide-and-seek. However, Shin knew that was not the case—his sister had sworn off the children's game when they were ten because Yashamaru, bored out of his mind and aggravated at being forced to play anyhow, had purposefully made the game a living hell for her. If Youko hadn't been injured by one of the pitfalls Yashamaru had set up for her, Shin would have found the situation funny. Instead he, Youko, and Karura had all given the sandy-haired boy the silent treatment until he finally broke down and apologized a week later. After that, they had all agreed that playing hide-and-seek with a to-be ninja was not the best of ideas.

It was impossible that his sister was playing hide-and-seek, and so, Shin decided, she must be spying on someone. The fact that she wasn't still freaking out about a certain missing green eyed girl told Shin who it was she was most likely spying on; however, it didn't explain why. "Sis," Shin began softly as he started towards his sister. He didn't get to say anything more because Youko whipped around, grabbed him, and pulled him down beside her, one hand over his mouth.

"Shh!" Youko hissed, "They'll hear you!" And with that, Youko released him and turned back to the edge of the boulder. Glancing over his twin's shoulder, Shin saw who 'they' were. Far in the distance Shin could easily make out two figures—one with pink hair and one with red—and they were hugging. This time Shin could not deny that the fire igniting in his core was jealousy—he knew his emotions too well, and the sight of his crush hugging some stranger made him want to run up to them and tear her from the other boy's arms. If Shin had been like Youko, who let emotions rule her logic, he would have already been halfway to the pair. But he wasn't like his sister. Although his emotions raged in him to go and do something, his logical mind held him back as he tried to understand the situation. From the minuet shaking he could observe in Kura's shoulders, Shin could tell that the pink haired girl was crying, and from the ridged way the red head was standing—not returning the hug but not pushing her away, his arms held awkwardly in midair as if he were unsure of what to do with them—Shin could surmise that the boy, whoever he was, had not been expecting a hug.

Shin had just come to this realization when his sister whispered excitedly to him, her eyes never leaving the pair, "I knew those two would look good together!" With that statement, everything suddenly fell into place in Shin's mind. There was only one person his sister ever tried to pair their green eyed friend up with. Kura was hugging the boy she called Aniki, the boy he knew—though his sister clearly did not—that Kura only viewed as a big brother and not as crush material. The flame of jealousy that had been thriving before flickered out of existence, leaving behind only a tiny ember of envy. Although he still wished the two weren't hugging in such an intimate fashion, Shin no longer felt the need to break them apart.

The grey eyed boy didn't know if this Aniki person had any romantic feelings for Kura, but if he did, then he was pitiable. Shin would never want to change places with the red head, even if he could hug Kura every day by doing so, because it would mean that he would be viewed only as a brother. It was bad enough that Kura was clearly oblivious to his feelings and viewed him only as a good friend—but at least he had that much. Her view of himself would bother him much more if he wasn't aware that, despite the fact that the pink haired girl was smart beyond her years, she was emotionally still a child. It could be years before she had her first crush. But at least he had a chance…something Aniki, stuck in the position of 'family' did not have.

Youko's voice broke Shin out of his thoughts, "Oh, I wish we could hear what they were saying!" It took the boy a moment to understand her statement, but once he did, he realized that, while he had been busy thinking, the two had shifted a bit so that, although Kura still had her arms wrapped around her brother-figure, it could no longer be considered a true hug. As his sister had pointed out, it now looked as if the two were talking—well, the red head was talking; Kura, on the other hand, appeared to still be crying (if her shaking shoulders were any indication), so even if she was speaking, it probably wasn't very conversational. From the way the red head seemed to be becoming even more ridged (if that was even possible), whatever Kura was saying was not fulfilling its purpose.

Then the red head's hand suddenly came down heavily on the girls head and Shin feared that Kura had made the boy angry. He was about ready to jump out and protect the pink haired girl when the red head forced Kura to look up at him as he bent down—Youko was cheering out under her breath 'Kiss, kiss, kiss' and for a moment the ember in his gut stirred—but then all the red head did was speak. Although they couldn't hear anything from their vantage point, from the way Kura jumped, whatever he had said had either been shocking or loud (or both). After that Kura started speaking more animatedly, to the point where it almost looked like she and the red head were having an argument. Well, at least she wasn't crying anymore.

* * *

Shin was debating with himself whether to announce his and his sister's presence to the two they were spying on, or if it would be better to drag Youko away and act as if they hadn't seen anything when his sister tried to scuttle towards another large rock nearer to the two. Shin followed without thinking, his mind still on the dilemma at hand. They had only just reached their new hiding spot when suddenly a loud voice was heard.

"Quit hiding in the shadows and come out." The bored sounding order had been issued by the red head.

Deciding that this was a clear sign that spying time was over, Shin began to move around the rock, only to be stopped by his sister grabbing him by the shirt and mouthing for him to stay silent. Under most circumstances, he would have done as Youko asked, however this time he saw no point in continuing to hide when it was clear that they had already been discovered. He opened his mouth to explain this to his sister only to have a hand slapped over his mouth. "Shh!" Youko hissed in his ear—probably louder than she had meant to—and then added so quietly that even he could barely hear her, "He's only guessing. You'll give us away—"

Shin hadn't even fully removed his sister's hand from his mouth when he began to sigh, "Sis…" Before he could say anymore, he felt as if an invisible hand had grabbed him by the shirt and given a hard tug. Both he and his sister lurched out from their hiding place—Youko shrieking in surprise while Shin stared at the red head who, from his stance, was clearly the cause of the invisible hand. As they stumbled nearer the red head—the hold on their shirts disappearing and Youko stammering excuses—Shin started to feel dread building within him. No one had told him that Kura's 'Aniki' was a ninja—and even worse—now that Shin could see the red head up close, he knew the boy was none other than Sasori—a boy who even someone like Shin, who avoided gossip, knew was dangerous.

For the second time that day, Shin felt the urge to tear his crush away from the red head; the only difference was that this time, he didn't feel bad about it. He might have acted on his feelings if Kura's voice hadn't sounded loud and clear over Youko's.

"It's the blue stringy-thingy again!" Shin's confused eyes snapped to his smiling crush, who was clapping and giggling as she looked at the boy she only knew as Aniki with almost awe inspired eyes. A shared glance with Youko informed Shin that she was as clueless as he as to what Kura was talking about. From the sigh that escaped the frowning red head's mouth, though, Shin knew that Sasori understood his pink haired friend. For some reason, that didn't settle well with Shin. The fact that Sasori was now glaring at the girl as if he wanted to kill her didn't settle well with him either. Although he hated to admit it, Shin felt a chill settle into his bones that had nothing to do with jealousy or hatred. It was fear—fear of this easily annoyed and powerful shinobi who could kill them all with the flick of a wrist.

Kura suddenly stopped clapping and giggling when she noticed the look the red head was sending her. Instead of reacting in fear—as Shin, who wasn't even under the full power of that gaze did—the pink haired girl cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips as if she were confused. A moment later, she inexplicably smiled as her hands came together in a gesture of sudden understanding. "Oh, right!" the girl explained, her voice sounding chipper once again, "Sorry, it's the blue _Chakra_-stringy-thingy again! I forgot that you said it was Chakra last time—er, well, a month ago—but that's not the point! That was cool! Can you do it again?"

Shin was frozen in place by the cold aura emanating from the blank-faced chunin. Shin desperately wished he could move—that he could stop Kura's flow of words before she made the notorious Sasori snap—but his legs wouldn't work and neither would his voice. His world was tunneled. All he could see was Kura obliviously digging herself a grave and Sasori preparing to end her obliviousness permanently.

Kura, completely unaware of the heavy aura surrounding her continued her slew of questions. "Can you show me how to do it? Is it a Jutsu? Do you just push Chakra out of your fingertips?" with this she glanced down briefly at her upturned palms, and narrowed her eyes as if she were concentrating, but then quickly returned her gaze to the stone faced shinobi and continued, "How does it work? Are there any hand signs that I need to—"

"I am not," interrupted the red head darkly, stressing his words without emotion, "going to teach you."

For reasons that Shin could not even begin to comprehend, Kura tilted her head to the side cutely and asked as if the shinobi wasn't threatening her indirectly, "Why?" Shin had to wonder how his friend and crush could not notice how much danger she was in. How did she not notice the way the red head's eyes were boring into her or the way the guy looked like he could strike out at her at any moment. Did she have no sense of self-preservation? No, from what he had been told about her run-in with the murderer, she had had more sense of self-preservation that Keiko—more than enough to escape a murderer. With that being the case, she must surely realize that Sasori was dangerous. But then, why was she blinking her wide—currently blue—eyes up at the obviously irritated young ninja as if he posed no threat to her? How was it that Kura could entirely avoid the heavy curtain of fear that he couldn't even begin to fight off, not even to protect her?

Shin had no idea how he expected Sasori to respond to Kura's prodding, but it certainly wasn't the heavy sigh that escaped the red head as he then answered reasonably—civilly, even, "…you aren't a Suna citizen."

As if not realizing that this statement was only one of many reasons why no one—not just Sasori—would ever teach the girl one of Suna's trademark Jutsu, Kura asked slowly, though clearly undeterred, "So…if I become a Suna citizen in the future you'll teach me?"

This time the red headed chunin put a hand to his face as if he were dealing with a headache. And yet when he answered, it was in that same, chilly-but-civil tone.

"Look, brat, Jutsu like that are only taught to Suna shinobi. You are neither a ninja nor from Suna."

"So, if I become a ninja you'll teach me?"

The red head's response was instantaneous, as if he had already planned on her saying something like that. "Hoshi don't become ninja."

Kura pouted cutely at the deadly entity before her as she crossed her arms over her chest and stated, "That's what everyone keeps telling me, but I want to anyhow!" If Shin hadn't already been frozen, this statement would have made his jaw drop. His mind started whirling as he tried to comprehend his friend's desire when everything he knew about her—from her personality to her weak constitution—said that she would never and should never be a ninja. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he missed some of Kura's mumbled protests about no one being willing to teach her and something about books. He was brought out of his thoughts only when Sakura's long trail of words came to an abrupt end. Sasori was glaring at her, but her only response this time was to rub her head guiltily before apologizing.

A few moments after that apology, Kura was at it again, "So, if I become a Suna citizen and a ninja, you'll teach me, right?" And then Kura extended her hand towards the chunin, her pinky finger stretched out as she continued without waiting for the boy's answer, "Well, then, it's a promise!" Did she seriously think this uptight prodigy would do something as childish as a pinky promise—especially about something that he clearly had no desire to do? As Shin expected, Sasori didn't move to take the offered finger, but he didn't ignore it, either. Instead, he just looked at the proffered digit as if it were an anomaly he had never encountered before.

Perhaps the same thought occurred to Kura as well, because her smile grew wide as she reached out and took the shinobi's hand and gently pried his pinky out so that she could wrap hers around his. "Like this…" she explained softly as she shook their hands up and down in what looked like a pinky-handshake. "I promise that I'll be a Suna ninja in the future, and you promise to teach me about the Chakra-stringy-thingy when I am!"

The red head's eyes narrowed as he disentangled his hand from Kura's. When he spoke, it was in a very bland, emotionless voice that matched his stone face perfectly. "That is a pointless agreement. It will never happen. I know you do not plan on remaining in an unfriendly country on the brink of war when the Hoshi you came here with leaves." Although the youth's face remained unchanged, Shin and —from the intake of breath that he heard beside him—his sister felt the heavy aura become almost suffocating. And yet, Kura looked completely unaffected as she shrugged, digging one toe in the dirt.

"Well…yeah…of course I'll be leaving with Kirsche." Although Shin couldn't describe how, something in the aura that held him and his sister paralyzed changed with this statement. Kura continued unawares, "I don't think I'd be allowed to stay even if I wanted to. But I'll be back—uh, in Suna—eventually. So as long as you stick around, we'll meet again! I mean…it might—uh, well...will be a while—I think Kirsche said…" Kura tapped her chin and closed her eyes, clearly thinking hard as she mumbled, "I think it was…uh…"

These disjointed mumbles continued on for thirty seconds or so before the red head stated harshly, "I'm waiting…" For a few moments, Shin worried that Sasori would do something to her, but all he did was continue on to add in an irritated manner, "…you have thirty more seconds."

Sakura's response was for her eyes to pop open and her hands to motion energetically as she asked for a few more minutes, only to be told she had twenty seconds now. And then Sakura did a strange thing, something Shin couldn't explain. She turned to face the last of the setting sun, her back to both Shin and Sasori as her hands continued to move through the air as if she were trying to diagram something in the sky that might help jump-start her memory. Fifteen seconds later she swiveled back around, a large grin on her face as she exclaimed, "That's it! Kirsche said it was fifteen to eighteen years! So after I go home we can meet again then!"

Once again the aura that held Shin captive shifted, and although he still couldn't understand why, this time he knew what the difference was. The pressure of the ninja's presence was letting up. If the chunin had looked content, that reaction might make sense, but instead he looked almost exasperated as he said, "You do realize that in fifteen years many things can change. By that time you'll likely have no desire to return, and—"

To Shin's shock, Kura interrupted Sasori fearlessly, "Oh, no, I _have_ to be back then…actually, it's for the same reason that I can't stay here…uh…now, and—"

And then the renowned genius did the unthinkable: he interrupted Kura, a quirky smirk on his lips, "—and even if you do return in the future, war is coming _now_. As I said earlier, it was a pointless agreement. In fifteen years I could be dead." Somehow, Shin doubted that.

Kura's face briefly fell, but soon she was smiling again as she stated in a slightly strained voice, "But you might not be, right? So it's not pointless. A promise is a promise." And then Kura turned around to look first at one twin and then the other as she asked, "Right, Shin, Youko…?" Her face fell again as she ran up to her friends with a slight limp, asking, "What's wrong? You both look really pale? Are you sick?"

Shin tried to respond, but all he was able to manage was a slight shake of his head. Youko apparently fared better, because she was able to manage a weak, "I don't think so." To Shin, it sounded as if his sister had been about to say more, but then a sound was heard that made his insides freeze.

It was a chuckle. Of all people, it came from Sasori. Although it only lasted for a few seconds, it felt to Shin as if that one completely uncharacteristic act had turned the world upside-down and inside-out. It didn't help that in that instant all of the heavy aura that had held him down vanished, leaving Shin disoriented.

Once again Kura seemed completely unaffected as she stated—as if sudden shifts in overwhelming aura and personality were something she were entirely accustomed to— "It isn't funny, Aniki; they don't look good."

As the world started to settle back into place, Shin could have sworn Sasori's smirk looked more like a smile as his hand fell on Kura's head. If it was a smile, it wasn't discernible in the red head's voice as he stated calmly, "You are correct that it is not funny, however it is nothing serious, either. They simply don't have the Chakra or the control you do to fend off mine." Kura made a questioning sound, but instead of answering, the red head took a few steps closer to Shin and Youko, sighed, and then said with a straight face, "I should apologize. I didn't think to rein in my Chakra in the presence of you two civilians."

Youko, perhaps noticing that her brother still felt a bit ill, began to accept his apology on both of their behalf's, when the now annoyed pink haired girl stomped one foot and stated with her arms crossed over her chest, "Hey! I'm a civilian too, you know! Even if I do want to be a ninja someday, I'm still a civilian…so why are you acting like I'm not here?!"

"Ah…" began the chunin as he glanced back at the puffed-up nine-year-old, that strange smirk-smile still on his face, "…it's easy to forget your legal status."

"Aniki, you Meany! What's that supposed to mean?"

The red head turned around and started walking off, but before he was out of earshot, he called back without turning around, "Next time you try to sneak up on a ninja you've never met before, and they catch you, you'll find out."

* * *

I don't know if that quite counts as a cliffhanger, but Sasori sure does know how to answer questions without answering anything.

Once again, here is a chapter written from the point of view of someone who I didn't originally plan to write from. Unlike 'Aniki' from the previous chapter, though, he didn't just write himself in. Originally I was thinking of having Karura for this scene, and only Karura, because I needed someone to objectively witness things…but then by the time I arrived at this scene, Karura was at dance lessons. Then I thought about just using Youko, but she's too clueless to be an objective witness. Yashamaru wouldn't have bothered hiding to 'spy' no matter what happened, so he was out as an option. And then there was Shin. Originally I thought he wouldn't work either, since he, too, wasn't the 'spying' sort…but then I realized that if I added Youko into the picture, he would go along with her…because that's just the kind of guy he is. Not only that, but this also allowed me to give everyone a glimpse at Shin's mind, his feelings for Sakura, and what it takes to truly make him jealous...as well as some of the irony of his situation. I hope you all liked the change in POV.

Well, I've made a recording of a segment from chapter 8, when Gaara and Sakura first meet Kirsche. I chose this portion because the most asked for quality—for those who did specify—was for the reading to include either Gaara or Kirsche, and this chapter has a bit of both. Now I just need to figure out a way to get it up on the internet where my lovely readers can get to it. If anyone has any helpful suggestions, send them my way. It has to be something easy, because I don't have access to any special programs on my computer.

I'll try to update in another two weeks (so around Friday the 13th of June). I've already got a portion of the next chapter written, but right now my boss at one of my jobs is on vacation, and so because of that I (and all of my fellow co-workers) have to take on more hours to cover the gap left behind. If I am not lucky enough to be able to update by Friday the 13th, I'll update the next week (around the 20th).

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to some sugar cookies fresh from the oven, because they're so sweet; flamers, on the other hand are welcome only to the pan, fresh from the oven. Now, on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: RtheAwesome (Well...for better or for worse, I have begun writing my Sakura/Sasori fic, but I won't post it until I have it finished. I'm trying to keep it short, but I think it will be three or four chapters), BriEva (Well...no one was actively trying to cut off her foot...Sakura just has that luck. The reason I used 'Aniki' for Sasori's point of view is because he is aware that that is who he is when he is with her...similarly, he is aware that 'brat' is not Sakura's name, and he clearly knows she's a Hoshi, so he could think of her as Hoshi, but he only does so when he's trying to distance himself from her. Personally, I think he enjoys being Aniki more than Sasori. As to the eclipse question and the eye-stealing question...you know, I never thought about that. For the eclipse, I would think that the Chakra would be used up to the last possible safe amount, and then they would fall unconscious until their Chakra stores returned. I suppose if someone stole a Hoshi's eye, they would have the added benefit of seeing Jutsu, and perhaps eclipses would have an effect too, but I doubt they would be able to get any other special abilities, since those are person-specific.), Arisu-kun (thanks, and I'm glad you appreciate it. I try really hard not to forget her age despite how smarth she is...and how old she currently looks), Geniusly-Unique (I'm glad you like my Sasori. I am going to end up posting a Sakura/Sasori story...once I finish writing it...so when I do, I hope you'll read that and enjoy that Sasori as well), Emilise284 (I like your enthusiasm. Also, it shouldn't be too many more chapters before Sakura is reunited with Gaara. I can't say how many exactly, though), moodymel (It's good to hear from you again. I also like hearing/writing about Sasori's thoughts and feelings too; especially since it allows me to explore why and how he might have become Akatsuki's Sasori. It's really fun to get into his psyche as a child-genius with anti-social tendencies and a weak grasp on the importance and understanding of emotion), & Hannipan (Don't worry, it will come relatively soon) for reviewing!


	38. Bears

Disclaimer: hmm…FANfiction…hmm…

Chapter 38: Bears

One night Sakura awoke with a gasp to Youko shaking her shoulders. It was just the two of them at their 'sleepover' this time. Karura had been going to spend the night yet again, but then she found out that her brother had returned from his mission with a broken leg and a severe concussion and she had flown to see him. Because she had been on her own, Youko had actually remained half-attuned to her surroundings as she slept, which allowed her to actually hear her pink haired friend crying in her sleep. The restless hand that had hit her face as Sakura twisted and turned in her sleep might have been a factor as well.

"Kura," Youko whispered loudly as the girl's eyes fluttered open, "Are you all r—" The moment Sakura got a good look at Youko's face, she had thrown herself on the girl, crying in earnest. "Wha…?" Youko gasped, trying not to fall off the bed with Sakura's sudden attack. Only after she had steadied herself did she ask what was wrong.

"You died," Sakura whimpered into her collarbone between sobs, "It was dark…and light…and hot…and it smelled weird…and the roof fell…and you died…and your mom died…and Shin…he tried to get to you…but someone stopped him…and you died…"

Youko wrapped her arms around Sakura and began rocking back and forth as she cooed in a soothing manner, "It's alright…it was just a dream…I'm alive…it's just a dream…just a nightmare…it's not real…" After about five minutes—although it felt much longer than that to the tiered Youko—Sakura finally ceased crying. Silently the young Hoshi snuggled into Youko's embrace, grasping the older girl's nightdress in a death grip

Still sitting up and holding the girl, Youko was halfway asleep herself when she heard a mumble. Leaning down, she caught what sounded like '…can't die…be my aunt…' but that made no sense. Instead of worrying about it, Youko spent all of her remaining energy on lying down and pulling the covers over herself and Sakura. When next the grey eyed girl awoke, it was to find that she had cocooned herself in blankets as she sprawled over most of the bed. Instead of wondering about the girl's nightmare or her strange sleepy statement, Youko simply wondered where her pink haired friend had gone. The bed was empty of all but her and the blankets. A quick glance around showed that the floor held the missing pillows, that the curtains had been pulled open, and that her bedroom door was not latched closed as it had been when they went to bed. There was no Sakura.

Groggily Youko disentangled herself from her cocoon, and shuffled to her door with the plan of going to get breakfast before she had to go to the hospital. She stopped when she heard her blue eyed friend's voice distantly complaining, "…in the corner, but then she kicked me off the bed…" Youko didn't want to hear anymore, and she most certainly did not want to find out who Sakura was telling this to. She was half-afraid it might be her brother, and if it was him that Sakura was complaining to—Youko wanted to escape. For reasons that Youko couldn't understand, Shin was overprotective of the pink haired girl—almost, she thought, like a papa-bear protecting his cub—and Youko wanted nothing to do with whatever papa-bear might dole out to her as punishment for her sleeping habits. Not even bothering with the door, Youko turned back around, closed the curtains on the predawn light, and returned to her cocoon. Someone would wake her up in time to get to the hospital. Most likely there would be time for nothing else, though.

* * *

Somehow Sakura hadn't been surprised when she had stepped out of Youko's room hours before the sun would be up and found a fully dressed Cha'ri gingerly closing her own door. The brunet looked shocked to see her, and for a moment in the dim hallway light Sakura thought Cha'ri looked worried, but then a large grin lit the older girl's face and she had called out a greeting—as friendly as always. The two ended up chatting quietly for hours while sitting at the top of the stairs. Cha'ri was just finishing up with putting Sakura's hair into two pigtail-braids when they heard a door open up behind them.

Turning to look, Sakura found that the door that had opened was none other than the door from which Cha'ri had exited hours ago. In the doorway now stood a stern faced man with brown hair so dark it almost looked black, black eyes, and a bear-like build. The sound of sudden movement to her left made Sakura look at Cha'ri; the brunet had shot to her feet, her face pale under her bruise. "Riko!" the man growled, not bothering to keep his voice down for the other guests. Cha'ri started forward, looking to Sakura like Kankuro when he knew he was about to be in trouble.

Sakura stood up as well, not sure what else to do, when the bear-of-a-man snarled, "Wha'd I tell ya?" and then the angry man's hand was sailing towards the thirteen-year-old's face. Unthinkingly Sakura's hands began to fly through the motions Kirsche had taught her—the ones to freeze people and things—but before she could finish, the man had grasped his daughter's ear and was twisting it as he dragged her closer to his face. Whatever he said to Cha'ri, Sakura didn't hear it, but she was well aware of her friend's shaking hands—one of which was grasping her father's wrist, trying to stop him from twisting her ear anymore—the other was flapping behind the brunets back, as if she were motioning for Sakura to get away.

Sakura was terrified of the big man, and now that he had a hold on Cha'ri, she knew that using her Kekkei Genkai could only make the situation worse, but at the same time, the little girl was aware that she had to do something. Clenching her hands and biting her trembling lip, Sakura stumbled forward despite her fear. Ninja didn't run away from big bullies and so neither would she. The first thing Sakura tried was to tell him (well, more like ask him fearfully) to quit hurting her friend. The man had glared at her and, without releasing his grip on Cha'ri, picked Sakura up, gave her one hard shake, and then tossed her towards the stairwell. After that, her turned back to whisper something else to Cha'ri without even looking to see if Sakura caught her footing or if she tumbled down to the floor below them.

Now Sakura was more angry than afraid—and she wanted more than anything to stomp up to the man and yell at him until he groveled apologies to both her and Cha'ri. But she didn't, because she realized that if she stomped, he would hear her coming and likely just throw her again, and if she yelled, she would wake others, and they would be angry with her. She didn't stop to think that maybe waking others wasn't such a bad idea in this situation. Instead, Sakura padded as quietly as she knew how behind the bear-man, kicked him right below his knee, and then started scrabbling backwards, hoping that the big man wouldn't fall on her as she had once seen young Yashamaru fall on one of his teammates during practice from being kicked the same way.

The man didn't fall—but he did release Cha'ri as he swiveled around to face her. If looks could kill, she'd already be dead. Instead Sakura froze as a pressure she couldn't even begin to describe weighed down on her, making her break out in sweat at the bear-man took a step towards her. Her mind went blank. All Sakura could do was stare at the brute, her knees shaking. The next thing Sakura knew, she was seeing the back of her friend's head as Cha'ri magically appeared right between her and the man, her arms outstretched to protect Sakura better. When finally Cha'ri spoke, it was only to say one word quietly, warningly, "Father…" Although it was said softly, the brunet's voice almost sounded threatening.

The bear-man grunted—Sakura later determined it to have actually been a sigh—and then rumbled under his breath, "Don't 'Father' me, y'brat—" Stomping past the two children, the man headed for the stairs, but before he descended he glared back at his daughter and added louder, "…an' don't let me catch ya balkin' again...Riko." There was an unspoken 'or else' that even Sakura could detect at the end of that statement.

Once he vanished, Sakura's quaking knees finally gave way, and she sank to the floor. Cha'ri was at her side, helping catch some of her weight before Sakura hit the ground harder than her body would have liked. "Are you okay?" the older girl whispered.

At first Sakura nodded, then she shook her head, and finally, as Cha'ri started to help her stand again she asked quietly, "Why…why did you let him do that?" Cha'ri winced, but Sakura didn't realize that her honest question could be taken as an accusation until the brunet started apologizing and withdrawing within herself. Sakura wasn't asking why her friend had let her father hurt Sakura—because Sakura knew she hadn't. Cha'ri had protected her from the bear-man—it was Cha'ri that Cha'ri hadn't protected. Sakura shook her head and added, "No…I meant…why did you let him hurt you? You didn't let him hurt me…so why…?"

Cha'ri was shaking her head, her short brown hair swaying side to side as she stared at the ground, her hands clinched on the hem of her dress. "He's my…" the brunet began quietly, sounding almost sad, "…father." When Sakura just gave her friend a look that said 'so what', Cha'ri grimaced and turned away. "I…can't go against 'im."

"But you went against him to save me." Sakura reminded Cha'ri.

The brunet continued to shake her head, not turning to look at Sakura, "I's not like that…i's…difficult…and I'm stuck with 'im, so—" Cha'ri sighed heavily, then mumbled something that sound like 'protect my family'. Before Sakura could be sure she heard correctly, Cha'ri had turned back around and was wearing a large smile. If not for the sadness in her eyes, the smile might even have looked genuine. When Cha'ri spoke, she sounded as if she was no longer concerned, "…and to 'im I am just a brat, so nothin' I do will change much…not for me." And then Cha'ri was hugging her as she whispered into Sakura's ear, "But I protect those I care about…and Kura…you're just like my little sister."

With that, Cha'ri broke away and started down the stairs, saying as she went how she hated being called Riko nearly as much as she hated being called a brat. With a sad smile, Sakura raced to catch up with her 'big sister'. Going along with the change of subject—which was a very weak change, if Sakura did say so herself—Sakura began by saying how mean bear-man was (Cha'ri laughed at the nickname) and how people shouldn't call other people names just to be mean. When Cha'ri asked how someone could call someone else a name without trying to be mean, Sakura had to stop and think for a bit. Finally she answered, "Well…it's sort of like how Aniki calls me brat all of the time, but I know he's not trying to be mean. It's almost…well…like a nickname."

Sakura didn't realize that Cha'ri had quit moving until she ran into the girl. Rubbing her sore nose, Sakura looked up at the older girl questioningly. Cha'ri was staring at her. Finally the brunet asked, "I thought t'was a name before…but ya 'ave…a big brother?"

Although Sakura couldn't understand why Cha'ri was making such a big deal over it, Sakura shook her head and answered plainly, "No…just Kirsche…" and then, under her breath, she added, "…at least, that I've met…" when she realized that Kirsche had never told her if she had any older siblings…only that her mother was dead. Shaking her head—this time to chase away those thoughts for later—Sakura added, "Aniki is my friend here. He won't tell me his real name, and…now that I think about it…I don't think I've told him mine…but ever since I met him he's been calling me brat. At first I think he meant it in a mean way…but not anymore. Now he just likes to act like he's mean when really he's just a big softie!"

Sakura paused, rubbed her head when her memory of the Baker's death flashed before her eyes, and then added, "Well…at least with me, he's a softie…a prickly softie…who likes to pretend his face is made of stone…" Sakura couldn't help but giggle as she remembered the face Aniki had made when she'd hugged him yesterday—it had been worth getting lectured by Shin all the way home about finding safer friends (that was a lecture she had tuned out after only a minute of listening). Still giggling, Sakura continued, "…He likes to act mean…like he doesn't care, but…I guess he's a lot like you, because he's always there to help me when I'm in trouble."

Once again, for reasons Sakura couldn't begin to understand, Cha'ri looked stunned. Sakura was just about to ask why she was looking at her that way when she heard Megumi call out from the kitchen, asking if that was Sakura she heard. Sakura turned towards the kitchen, calling out her reply, only to cut herself off when two arms wrapped around her shoulders. Although she couldn't turn around, Sakura knew it was Cha'ri, and from the way the older girl's arms were quivering, she had to wonder if the brunet was crying. Knowing Cha'ri, Sakura decided it was better to pretend like she didn't notice anything was wrong. After all, if she did, she just knew the brunet would smile, say no, and then rapidly change the subject.

* * *

After Cha'ri was called by her mother to help with something, Sakura decided to go looking around the village for a glimpse of the strawberry-blond from the other day. More specifically she wanted to find him, watch him, and determine if he really was her father. She might have gone right up to speak to him if not for two things, the first being that Aniki had warned her against it, and the second was that Kirsche had also warned her against it, and both of them mentioned bodily harm and probable death as an outcome—although neither explained very well why those were likely outcomes, Sakura believed them…if only because Aniki usually seemed to be right and Kirsche could see the future.

At first Sakura searched blindly, walking around aimlessly searching for a flash of strawberry blond, but after an hour of this getting her nowhere but lost, she stopped to think in the shadow of a building. This was how she came to overhear two old ladies gossiping. The reason she listened in in the first place was because one of the women mentioned a 'Kurako', which caught Sakura's attention because, for a moment, she thought her nickname was being called.

One old woman was saying, "…and Kurako said her grandson refused to say who gave him the black eye."

The other woman jumped right in, sounding almost excited, "I know, Hito was the same way. When I asked how he could possibly have gotten a foreign drug in his veins, he swore he didn't know…and that boy can't lie to save his life, so I know he was telling the truth, but then when I asked him about the bruises he and his friends had…"

That old woman trailed off and was replaced by the first old woman, "Like Kurako said, they're hiding something…and I just hope it doesn't have to do with those Konoha vermin." With this statement, Sakura's wavering attention was snapped entirely to the old woman. If she had known what 'vermin' meant, she would have felt insulted, but she didn't, so instead she just listened as hard as she could, hoping to find out something more about her maybe-father.

The other woman interrupted her friend, "Oh, it couldn't be them, dearie. Don't you remember? They were in and out of the hospital before those four even arrived here."

"So?" snapped the first woman, "They're ninja…they sneak everywhere. The boys probably caught them spying and—"

"Oh, lizard-gizzards!" interrupted the second woman in a huff, "If that were the case, they'd be dead, not bruised and sideling like they're embarrassed every time someone questioned them. It'd be one thing if Ryu had been with them—you know, that bear of a boy...Mebuki's youngest—but he was off with his Genin team. If he'd been there, and still was beat up like that, it might have been ninja…but no, those boys probably picked on someone who could pick on them right back…a civilian, just like them…and—"

This time the first woman sighed, then interrupted her friend, "I suppose, but really…I don't like them being here. They're strutting around like they own the place. I mean, just twenty minutes ago I saw three of them settling down at the park with a picnic basket!" Somehow the woman's voice made it seem like the gravest of sins, but the only thing Sakura could find strange about the act was that it was weird to have a picnic for breakfast.

The second woman laughed, and started to say something about it being cooler in the morning, only to be interrupted by two little girls running towards the two old women with cries of 'Granny'. As the two women strode off, Sakura left the shadows in search of a park, conveniently forgetting that she was still lost. In the end she had to ask a glaring police officer where the nearest park was. The bad news was that the park turned out to be full of children celebrating the fact that they had no school today—and there were no ninja in sight. The good news was that she recognized this park, and could find her way to the next nearest park without issue. It wasn't until she had visited the third playground without success that Sakura thought to wonder if the old woman had meant a different kind of park—the kind that children didn't tend to visit unless they liked nature more than having fun.

With the help of another, more friendly…or at least less unfriendly...policeman (this one she recognized from the Baker incident as having been standing near Keiko), she successfully found the nature park. Compared to the nature park she had once seen in Konha, this place wasn't very pretty. The only flowers she could see were on the cacti and a couple of bushes, and most of the rest of the vegetation was scrawny desert plants that looked like they could use a good rain. The only thing that seemed to flourish in this place, aside from the cacti, were the thorn-bushes and silence. After wandering around for what felt like forever, Sakura was about to give up on this place when she stumbled over a rock and brushed up against a long thorn from one of the bushes.

If not for one of thorns hitting the remains of her ankle injury, Sakura might have remained upright. Instead she went crashing down. Somehow she managed to keep most of herself out of the bush, but the sharp pain in her already injured ankle told her she hadn't completely escaped the bush's clutches. Moving to a sitting position, Sakura found that one of her legs was buried in the bush up to her knee. Seeing this, Sakura was so glad she decided to wear pants today. Although she could feel thorns pricking at her in a lot of places, only her ankle felt any real pain from the bush. Slowly Sakura drew back her leg, trying to scoot away from the bush. When she felt a sharp sting break the scab on her ankle, she halted.

Biting her lip, Sakura carefully reached into the bush, planning on moving the thorn away from where it was hooked in her skin, but her sleeve got caught. It took a number of minutes for Sakura to free her sleeve, and by that time she had a number of scratches on her hands and arms as well as a rip in her sleeve. On the verge of tears, the little child tried once more to move her ankle—this time away from the thorn she could feel in her flesh—but she had to stop when she felt another thorn start pricking the other side of her ankle. Only one tear had a chance to streak down her face before Sakura's ears caught the sound of people speaking in the distance. Curious and hopeful, Sakura bent to look around the edge of the thorn bush, careful not to move her leg.

When a young man with what looked like strawberry-blond hair appeared in the distance, standing beside two other young men, Sakura froze. The fact that the three were standing right in front of the early morning sun, making them almost seem to glow, made it hard to see any details. Despite this, Sakura completely forgot her situation, as she settled in to watch and listen as the two other men spoke just loud enough for her to hear their strained tone of voice, but not their words. Every once in a while the strawberry-blond would say something pleasant-sounding and the other two would respond in a positive manner before eventually falling back into their strained conversation. Sakura wished they would come closer, or at least step away from the sun, so that she could see her maybe-father better, but they weren't turning in her direction. In fact, they were turning the opposite way. In vain, Sakura mentally pleaded for her maybe-father to turn around and look at her—she still had yet to get a good look at his face and that might be all it would take to determine his identity—but he didn't.

Sakura was so absorbed and desperate that she didn't notice she wasn't alone anymore until someone whispered calmly—so near they were practically in her head—"Who do you think you are looking at?"

"My fath—" Sakura didn't even realize that she was speaking to someone until she was already beginning to answer…and when she did, her head spun around as a shadow as large as a bear fell over her. She had to bite back a squeak, first of surprise at the shadowy-person before her and then because of the pain in her scalp when one of her braided-pigtails got caught in the bush. Someone else's hand helped her untangle it, and by the time she could catch a glimpse of the person's face, she realized that the nature park had gone silent, as if the other three had simply vanished.

Sakura stared with wide eyes at the blond man before her. The familiar man's blue eyes stared back under his Konoha headband. It wasn't her maybe-father, but it was one of the men he had come with. Trying to look around the bush again, Sakura found that the three she had been watching really had vanished. Returning to look at the blond man she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Where did they go?"

The blond chuckled sheepishly, "Sorry about that, I thought you were…someone else." When Sakura asked him grumpily (she didn't like her question being ignored and her ankle was really starting to hurt) who he had thought she was and what that had to do with where the others went, he chuckled again and then put away the kunai she hadn't even realized he'd been holding. He then proceeded to help free her leg deftly as he answered kindly, "I felt your chakra signature a while ago, and though now I can see that the reason for that is that you're a Hoshi, from a distance you felt more like one of those Genin who have been trying—unsuccessfully—to chase me and my colleges away." When Sakura's glare informed the man that his reasoning wasn't connecting the dots for her, he added, "That was a Genjutsu—an illusion. Once again, sorry about that."

Sakura knew what a Genjutsu was, but she couldn't believe what the man had told her. "So you're saying I didn't find my father?" The question was out before Sakura remembered Aniki's warning about keeping her parentage secret. It wasn't until the blond laughed and asked who she could possibly mean that Sakura realized that it was probably all right to tell this man. After all, it was the people from Suna she had been warned would hurt her, not someone from Konoha—and Kirsche hadn't said anything about not talking to the people traveling with her maybe-father even if she had warned her not to meet with the man himself. Blushing—because the blond was still laughing—Sakura mumbled, "…the other blond…"

As the Konoha ninja slowly drew her leg out from under the bush, he stopped laughing and explained kindly, as if afraid to break her little heart, "Ah, him…you do realize that he's too—"

Sakura interrupted with a shrug and a hint of annoyance, "Too young? Yes. Aniki told me the same thing yesterday—but he looks like the photo, so I don't care."

To Sakura's surprise, rather than getting angry as most adults she knew would have, the man simply patted her on the head with a smile. He looked as if he were trying to hold back more laughter as he said, "Well, you've got a will of fire, little girl, and I hope you never let it go out." Standing up, he helped her to her feet. Only after he was sure she would be able to walk without help did he straighten, his face becoming much more serious, "But I'm afraid to inform you, your brother is right. Haruno cannot be your father." And that one sentence, meant to assure her she was wrong, solidified her knowledge that the strawberry-blond was indeed her father.

The ninja appeared to mistake Sakura's flush of happiness for a blush as he looked around, sighed, then rubbed his head as if he were embarrassed or apologetic. Finally he spoke gently, "Haruno might not be your father…but don't give up hope—" Suddenly the man cut himself off, a thoughtful look coming over his face as he looked her over. After a minute of this scrutiny, the man shrugged, then said carefully, as if he were choosing his words, "I suppose…there might be more hope then I first thought. Although it's not much, you do bear a slight resemblance to Haruno. I have heard that the man who—fathered him—hasn't been cau—uh, found yet. Perhaps you share a father." Then the man shook his head, as if to chase such thoughts away, smiled, and added, "But enough about that. Do you need help getting home, little Hoshi? I take it you are staying at one of the inns."

After testing her ankle and finding that, aside from a dull ache and some fresh blood, it was no worse than it had been before, she responded that she could get herself back to the inn. It wasn't until she was halfway home that she understood why his face had looked so familiar—and not just because she had seen him briefly yesterday. Now that she thought about it, Sakura realized that the blond man's face looked almost identical to one of the faces she had seen carved into the mountain back when she lived in Konoha. For a moment Sakura stopped in her tracks to look back over her shoulder, but the blond, the Hokage—or future Hokage—was nowhere in sight.

Sakura shrugged and continued on her way. It's not like it was a big deal or anything.

* * *

And that's a wrap on this chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and Sakura's lack of care about politics. If anyone was wondering about the chapter title, it came about because as I was writing this, I kept using the word 'bear'...even though no actual bear makes an appearance...and it seemed to me to be the connecting factor in all parts of this chapter.

I've got a part of the next chapter written, and hopefully I'll have it finished and ready to post by June 27th

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to Minato's autograph, flamers on the other hand, can stay caught in his Genjutsu for all I care. Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: BriEva (Indeed, Sasori has not been able to completely get rid of his emotions yet, though you can see how he might want to. As to Sakura and being a ninja...at this point in time people believe she has a weak constitution and therefore is unfit to be a ninja, not to mention that people see her personality as being 'soft', also not a good ninja trait. You might have noticed that Sasori never said anything about her being incapable of becoming a ninja...he just gave reasons not to so that she'd stop bothering him about teaching her how to do Chakra strings. He's never seen her act truly weak nor been given a reason to think her weaker than any other kid her age. He might think she's clumsy, unlucky and incredibly annoying, but not that she's incapable. As to the appearance of Jutsu...well, I plan for some dream walking next chapter, but it probably won't be until the chapter after that that Sakura will actively use her Jutsu), Emilise284 (yes...irony indeed, and although it's not set in stone yet, it is highly likely that Sasori will be appearing again when she gets back), RtheAwesome (It's always fun to try out new POVs), SnowWolfSpirit (to your past reviews: yes, Sasuke and Naruto will come in, just not until later. No, she can't stay unhurt...I'm afraid it isn't in her stars. No, it wasn't a random reference, so I'm glad you noticed it. Now, to last chapter's review: yes, she does need to work on that bad habit of blurting things out, yes, Cha'ri has secrets, and yes...don't meet his eyes, or else he might figure something out and we couldn't have that happen, now could we?), moodymel (I'm glad you like the intricacies of an overly-serious preteen's heart), & Geniusly-Unique (well, I hope this chapter helped explain Sasori's parting comment. If you're still confused, tell me and I'll send you a PM) for reviewing!


	39. In Darkness, Find Light

Disclaimer: When I say 'fan', I do not mean the electric kind.

Chapter 39: In Darkness, Find Light

Sakura was almost back home when the sound of something metal clanging as if fell down made her jerk to a halt. Swiveling her head side to side, Sakura tried to find the source of the noise and eventually caught wind of what sounded like muffled voices. Curious, Sakura hobbled towards where the sounds were coming from (a nearby shadowy ally), all the while wishing that the cut on her ankle hadn't reopened, or even better yet, she wished she hadn't injured herself in the first place. Sakura was shaking her head at her own thoughts when she rounded a corner and had to come to a halt or else trip over a fallen trashcan.

Sakura only thought about the rotting vegetables that had spilled out of the metal canister for a moment, because her eyes were instead drawn to the three teens that were huddled together, blocking a fourth person from view. The boys were all speaking at the same time, so Sakura couldn't understand what exactly they were saying, but she could tell that they weren't happy. Sakura was just thinking that it might be better for her to leave these boys to argue amongst themselves when she caught glimpse of a familiar red dress through a gap between two of the boys. A moment later Sakura heard an equally familiar voice, only slightly higher pitched than the voices of the clambering angry teens, shout out, "G' away, or else!"

All of the boys laughed as one, but one quit laughing abruptly to speak harshly, "I don't think so, foreigner." With that, he took a step forward, continuing his threat, and Sakura could finally see the face of her brunet friend. Cha'ri took a step to the side just as another boy struck out a hand, as if to grab her arm or hit her. The boy stumbled, clearly not expecting his prey to be able to dodge, but quickly regained his balance and glared at the brunet while calling her a terrible name. Cha'ri took a step back, away from all three boys, her hands held close to her body as if she were afraid; however the glare in her eyes when the boy again tried to do something to her was anything but scared.

Cha'ri successfully dodged this second sloppy attempt to harm her and then the next attempt by the first boy to speak, but as she moved, all of her attention on those two, Sakura saw the third boy start sneaking up behind the brunet. Without thinking, Sakura ran forward, ignoring the throbbing in her ankle, and grabbed at the third boy's shirt. It shouldn't have been surprising that he swung around and hit her. What was rightfully surprising, though, was that instead of being thrown against something hard and painful by the hit, she was instead caught up in a whirl of red that left her momentarily disoriented.

It only took a few moments for everything to settle down and for Sakura to realize that somehow Cha'ri had come to her rescue, having pushed down her other two attackers to reach Sakura in time. Now the brunet was holding her with one arm, keeping Sakura safely pressed to one of her sides, while the other hand was held threateningly out in front of her. At first Sakura thought that her hand was in a fist, but when the still standing boy laughed and said something about not being afraid of a little broken glass, Sakura realized that there was a slight glimmer of something thin and flat just poking between two of the brunet's fingers, but from her angle, she couldn't see it well enough to tell if it really was a piece of glass or not.

The teenaged boy took a step forward, still laughing, as the boys behind him scrambled to their feet, their faces red—Sakura couldn't help but wonder if they were blushing, embarrassed at having been hit by a girl, or if they were simply angry at having their prey fight back. One of them looked like he had the beginnings of a black eye. It was the other one, the one who was now limping, who went pale when his eyes landed on the two girls. It wasn't until he cussed and grabbed at the laughing boy's arm to stop him from continuing forward that Sakura figured out that he wasn't looking at her and Cha'ri, but rather at just her.

The limping boy then hissed to the now glowering boy, "It's Kaneko's girl."

The glowering boy's eyes instantly widened, as he too cussed…a lot…and ripped his arm out from the other boy's grasp. For a moment Sakura was terrified as the angry teen grabbed the nearest heavy object—a wooden crate—and threw it. Thankfully it was aimed at the wall, not her or Cha'ri. The brunet didn't even flinch as the irate teen boy jabbed a finger in her direction, "Count your lucky stars, wench, because next time I see you I'll gut you for that trick you pulled!" Only after he and his entourage had disappeared and didn't seem to be coming back did Cha'ri loosen her grip on her pink haired friend, only to wrap her in a tight, two-armed hug a moment later.

"Don't 'cha ev'a do that again, Kura! Ya nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"But they were being bullies!" Sakura exclaimed into her friend's shoulder as she tried to push out of the hug so that she could better get her point across. The thirteen-year-old, however, had stronger muscles than her, and so Sakura gave up on escaping the overly-tight hug and instead returned it, glad that her friend seemed to be alright.

What felt like hours passed before Cha'ri pulled away and swiped at her eyes, as if she'd been crying, and then rounded on Sakura, her bright eyes stern. "Wha' in the world were ya doin'? Did they hurt ya?" And then, without waiting for an answer, she began to check over Sakura's body, starting by turning her face from side to side, and then moving to her hands. She stopped there, her eyes taking in the red and puffy scratches Sakura had received from the thorn bush. "Now, where'd ya get these? It wasn't those ba—" Cha'ri coughed, then finished, "—ah, those boys."

Sakura blinked, slightly confused as to why Cha'ri had changed what she was going to say, but even more so confused as to why the brunet sounded so worried about mere scratches. It took Sakura a few second to remember to answer the question. "Oh, I just fell into a thorn bush out at the nature park." When the brunet's gaze became even more worried, Sakura found herself extrapolating, "Really, I'm okay. None of the thorns made me bleed…well…except my ankle…but that was already—hey!" Sakura gasped out as Cha'ri picked her up and didn't set her down again until they were out of the alleyway and had found a nice sun-lit bench. Sakura then found herself on the bench as Cha'ri, completely ignoring the fact that she was getting her red dress all dirty, knelt on the ground and lightly pulled Sakura's foot up onto her knee where she could see it.

"How'd ya get this?" For a moment Sakura couldn't understand why Cha'ri was asking her that when she had just told her what had happened, but then she realized that the brunet was likely talking about the cut on her ankle. This required another explanation, this time accompanied by a blush when Sakura realized in the telling of it that she had fallen into a bush two days in a row.

With a weak, embarrassed laugh, Sakura covered her red face and mumbled more to herself than Cha'ri, "I'm such a klutz!" When it sounded like the brunet had mumbled an apology as her finger brushed against Sakura's scab, the pink haired child's head shot up, out of her hands. "It's not your fault I always find a way to trip!"

Cha'ri shook her head, her finger just lightly brushing over the part of the cut that the thorn had punctured through, "I know…that's not…well, anyways…" Cha'ri stood up just then and once again pulled Sakura up into her arms, "…we should get back t' the inn. I think part of a thorn might 'ave broken off in there." Sakura tried to inform her friend that she was capable of walking on her own but Cha'ri simply rolled her eyes and continued carrying her anyhow.

They arrived at the inn just as lunch was being served. Since Megumi was busy with lunch, Cha'ri suggested that they go up to Sakura's room and deal with the injury there, where they wouldn't get in the inn matron's way. Sakura agreed and soon found herself being gently deposited on her own bed (the one she hadn't been sleeping in much recently thanks to all of Youko's sleepovers) as the brunet briefly exited the room to get some medical supplies.

In the end, Cha'ri turned out to be correct. The tip of a thorn had been buried just beneath her skin. The brown eyed girl carefully removed it with tweezers, apologizing when Sakura bit back a cry and then apologized again just before she dabbed at the now bleeding wound with one of the cotton balls she had prepared before entering the room. This time Sakura did start crying. The cotton ball felt like fire on her skin. After Cha'ri disposed of that first bloodied cotton ball and picked up a second, Sakura flinched away. Once again Cha'ri apologized, and then gave a two word explanation: hydrogen-peroxide, before taking the new cotton ball and dabbing it at all of the scratches on her leg and hands. Sakura bit her lip to keep herself from crying more. She knew about hydrogen-peroxide thanks to her first-aid book, and so she knew that although Cha'ri was hurting her, it was for her own good. It still took all of her self-control not to slip off the bed and run away from yet another stinging cotton ball.

By the end of the procedure Sakura was exhausted, and as soon as Cha'ri slipped out of the room (with yet another apology), the pink haired child lay down on her bed, held her stinging hands close to her chest, and promptly fell asleep with the tears still on her face.

* * *

_Sakura knew she was dreaming. She was back in Old Suna, following behind the older version of Yashamaru dressed in ninja gear as he walked steadily through a hallway. Sakura's vision seemed to be slightly blurry, but even so she could see that Yashamaru looked worried. The medic stopped before a door, took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and then knocked. A deep voice from inside soon bid him to enter. Yashamaru barely opened the door before he slipped inside and closed it again, right in Sakura's face…or more to the point, right through Sakura's face, for Sakura passed through the door like a ghost…and like a ghost, she remained unnoticed by both the man she was following and the man wearing the robe of the Kazekage, though not the hat. If Sakura had actually been in control of her body, she would have tripped in surprise, for the man with the Kazekage's robes was not the black haired man Sakura had seen just the other day but someone else she knew quite well: Katsu._

_Sakura could only stare, her mouth open, as Yashamaru greeted his Kazekage with a bow. Gaara's father was the Kazekage…so that had to mean Katsu was Gaara's father…at least, assuming this was a Walking dream and not just a dream. Sakura wasn't sure quite what to think about this. A guy she couldn't stand was her best friend's father. After a moment of being lost in thought, Sakura snorted at her own folly. Of course Katsu was Gaara's father…that was why they looked so similar, not to mention Katsu was the guy that Karura kept saying she liked, and Sakura was almost a hundred percent sure that Karura was Gaara's future mother. It shouldn't have been surprising, but even knowing that all of the pieces fit to make a perfectly clear picture, Sakura still couldn't quite believe it. After all, Katsu was so mean, and Gaara was…well…not. He must take after his mother, Sakura decided, finally coming out of her thoughts to find out that Yashamaru and Katsu had started speaking without her._

_Yashamaru was shaking his head, his hands clasped firmly behind his back as he stated, "…don't believe it would be a wise course to take anymo—"_

_Katsu cut him off gruffly, "Ten buildings in just as many days, Yashamaru." Although this meant nothing to Sakura, Yashamaru clearly understood, because his shoulders dropped just slightly as he once again tried to say something about 'it' not being a good idea, only to be interrupted once more, "Twenty-five hospitalized. We are lucky there have been no deaths so far, but it's just a matter of time. Two weeks ago you claimed to have found a way to deal with these kinds of outburst and yet here we are." Once again Yashamaru tried to say something that began with 'but', however Katsu spoke right over him, "I don't care about your reasoning for this continued failure, what I care about is the safety of this village."_

_Katsu sighed, then leaned back in his chair to rub his head, as if he had a headache. Meanwhile Yashamaru stood extra straight, his teeth gritted—probably on another retort—and his knuckles stood out, white with how hard he was clenching his hands behind his back. It wasn't until Katsu spoke next that Sakura began to understand what exactly was going on. The more she figured out, the less she liked what she was hearing. _

"_Gaara is getting out of hand again. For a while there I thought you might be right…but these past ten days—nay, these past weeks—have proven that he's just as unstable as I feared."_

_This time Yashamaru was able to speak before Katsu could cut him off, "That's what I've been trying to explain. He's unstable because that girl I was telling you about disappeared, not because—"_

_The man with the darker hair interrupted, sounding annoyed, "Yes, and I remember it was you who first suggested that removing her from Gaara's presence might be for the best."_

_Yashamaru glared at Katsu, a fire in his eyes that Sakura could hear in his voice when finally he responded to the acquisition, "Be that as it may, I told you soon after that I had revised my opinion. The destruction of the past days only proves that the original idea was not a good one. It's only because Youko's niece has disappeared—" Without warning, Yashamaru cut himself off, his face going pale as he stared at the Kazekage who was looking at the papers on his desk rather than at Yashamaru and who, possibly, wasn't listening to the medic either. _

_Slowly Yashamaru's eyes narrowed, and when finally he continued speaking, it was in a tight voice that sounded almost accusatory, "Youko's niece disappeared along with that Hoshi girl in the middle of the night. Shin has a note that was supposedly left by the Hoshi…but I find it hard to believe that two civilians could simply vanish without leaving a trace in a village full of Shinobi alert for such activity…unless it was because of a Shinobi that they vanished in the first place."_

_Katsu's only response to this was to shuffle the papers on his desk, seemingly ignoring Yashamaru._

"_Please tell me…" Yashamaru began politely, but with frost in his voice, "tell me that you did not send ninja to…remove…Youko's niece." Finally Katsu looked up, but instead of speaking, he simply raised one eyebrow, as if to ask what Yashamaru thought, and handed him one of the papers from his desk. Yashamaru accepted the paper with a steady hand, although Sakura could see the white-knuckled fist that remained shaking behind his back. Without looking at the paper, Yashamaru addressed the Kazekage tersely, "You haven't answered my question."_

_The Kazekage rolled his eyes, but finally responded, equally terse, "I didn't give orders to kill the girl, if that's what you are asking. Now read that." Katsu crossed his arms over his chest and waited until Yashamaru started reading the paper before he began speaking again "That contains the plans for two days hence. The elders have already approved and starting tomorrow the eavac—"_

_Sakura couldn't get herself into a position to read the paper, but whatever Yashamaru was reading was not making him happy. "This is a bad idea." Yashamaru interrupted his superior, looking up from the paper with a glare. "I can already tell you what will happen. You don't need to…to _test_ this! Without Sakura here, the end is already decided. He's already too unstable. Anymore and he might—"_

"_Exactly," Katsu cut in, "that is the problem. If, like you claimed a few weeks ago, he is not beyond hope, then you should be able to carry this out. If, as I believe is the case, Gaara has become more of a danger than an asset to Suna, then he must be dealt with appropriately." Yashamaru made to argue, but the Kazekage cut him off with a hand gesture, "No excuses. If he is truly manageable yet then you will succeed, and if not, if he is beyond saving, then nothing will change the outcome."_

_Yashamaru glared and began to say something that sounded like it contained Sakura's name again, but as before, the Kazekage cut him off, this time with a loud grunt and a hand hitting the desk. "Enough, Yashamaru! Originally I planned to give you the option since he is your sister's son and I know you hold some attachment for him because of that, but if you truly think that the boy's emotional attachments are at the center of all of this, then I see no one better than you to lead this mission. Therefore, as your Kazekage, I command you cease questioning your orders. Read the rest of that and be prepared for your mission. You are dismissed."_

_The dream swirled into blackness before Yashamaru had even opened the door, leaving Sakura feeling jittery, confused, and even a bit angry. Her next dream riled her emotions even more. She was in the fire again, the fire that had recently been haunting her dreams, but this time it felt different. Sakura didn't know how different it would be, though, until she ran after Youko and Megumi in the burning building. Somehow everything felt more real than usual. Despite the smoke, everything looked so crisp and clear. Sakura easily caught up with the two before they got far inside. Unlike in her previous dreams, she was able to scream out their names…and they turned…and then ran to grab her up. Sakura didn't know what to think as Megumi raced out of the building, fire licking at her heals while pushing Youko ahead of her and carrying Sakura in her arms. _

_Just as they passed through the main doors outside, the roof caved in and the shock wave sent all three of them careening into the ground. It wasn't until they quit rolling on the ground and people rushed to help them that Sakura understood how drastically different this dream had been from the other fire dreams. This time both Megumi and Youko were alive—battered, but alive. None of her other fire-dreams, no matter how different they were from each other, had had such an ending. She was still half-expecting something terrible to happen as the dream came to a close, leaving the pink haired child feeling both relieved and anxious._

_Sakura calmed down after the next dream, this one a sweet, if slightly blurry, dream about Gaara and her celebrating her birthday. Her next dream was a short, plain dream, in which she saw Karura's grown-up silhouette protect Gaara—from what, Sakura didn't get to find out, because it was already being replaced by the next short blurry flash. Sakura watched as Kankuro, of all people, showed her how to properly throw a kunai. For some reason, as this dream ended, Sakura was reminded of the brief flash she had seen of a kunai days ago when she had dreamed about Aniki pushing her._

_With this thought came a flash of light and then briefly Sakura saw that same kunai flying yet again, only this time she could see the background as well. In the few heart beats during which she could see the kunai, Sakura realized three things. The first was that this was happening in a graveyard, the second was that there was a full moon out in a sky marred by only one, bunny-shaped cloud, meaning that this was happening at night, and the third—and most startling realization—was who the kunai was being thrown at. Sakura couldn't see who was doing the throwing, but she could clearly see that the kunai was flying straight towards the back of a very familiar head. A head that was currently downcast, looking at a grave. Although Sakura couldn't be certain, she thought she heard the boy sniffle, as if he'd been crying. He didn't seem to notice the weapon hurtling silently towards him._

"_Aniki!_" Sakura screamed out in warning…only to realize she was screaming out in real life, not in the dream. Someone was shaking her awake.

* * *

Sakura's eyes snapped open, but even as Shin's worried face swam into view, the image of the kunai only a foot from the back of Aniki's head wouldn't vanish.

"Kura…" Shin was speaking, but Sakura only half heard him as she continued to stare at the frozen image in her head, "…your eyes…what's wrong?" With the small part of her that was watching Shin, Sakura was aware that her future father-figure looked lost and afraid, as if he had no clue what to do. Finally…although Sakura had no clue how long it took for it to happen…how long she had remained fixed on the terrifying image burned into her retinas…Shin's cold hand gently touched her face, and whatever trance she had fallen into was broken. Something inside her snapped and for a moment Sakura thought the room had gone bright, only to realize that the room hadn't brightened any, but rather that the overlying nighttime image had finally disappeared, leaving her wholly to reality for the first time since she had opened her eyes.

It also left her feeling drained…tired…in a different way than the exhaustion she had felt when she had first lain down. It wasn't until Shin wiped a tear—she hadn't even known she'd been crying—from her face and said something about her eyes being green again that Sakura understood what had just happened and why she felt as poorly as she did. And that understanding made her feel even worse, because if her eyes were 'green again' that meant she had been using her Kekkei Genkai when Shin had awoken her. And if she had been using her Eyes when she was awoken, that had to mean the kunai dream was as real as the pushing dream had been. The other dreams she couldn't be sure about, but this one undoubtedly had been a Walking Dream…which meant that…

"Someone's going to try to kill Aniki!" Sakura was scrambling, trying to untangle the covers from her legs, trying to race out of the room, her heart beating a mile a minute...but she had forgotten that Shin was right in front of her, one hand still on her face. There's no way he could have missed her intentions, but instead of letting her act out in fear, he did something that Sakura hadn't expected him to do. He stopped her. Before she could even get one foot out of the blankets he was sitting on the bed beside her, hugging her to him in a very Youko-like manner.

Sakura froze, completely surprised. For a moment she wondered if she hadn't been wrong, and this was actually her future aunt, but no, she knew Shin too well to mistake him for his sister. The fact that he didn't start rocking back and forth or cooing soothing words about it being 'just a dream' also helped identify him as not-Youko. Instead he just sat there, holding her tightly as if afraid she would try to break away from him. It was many minutes before he asked softly, "Are you calmer now?"

Sakura was, but she could still feel her heart pounding, telling her she should be doing something, that she should be getting up, that she should act before it was too late. Instead of doing what her instincts told her to do, she glanced out the window over Shin's shoulder and then buried her face into Shin's collar, wrapping her arms around him in a return hug. The sun was still high in the sky, so she still had time…Aniki was still safe. As her heart slowed its beating, she began to think more clearly. Although the dream hadn't lasted long, there actually had been a couple of clues that could help her find a way to help save her big-brother figure.

The most obvious clue was that it had—would—happen at night; or more precisely, on a night with a full moon. The only problem was that Sakura hadn't exactly been paying attention to the phase of the moon recently, so Sakura had no clue how close or far away the next full moon was. The good news was that she could probably find someone who did know and ask them. The other clue was the graveyard. Although it was a creepy place and she didn't particularly want to go there, if she could find the graveyard then she might find Aniki's attackers before they attacked. She wasn't quite sure yet what she'd do when she found them, but hopefully she'd have time to come up with a plan before that happened. If not…if it was tonight…well…she'd just have to make it up as she went.

Sakura had just decided to ask Shin about the moon when she noticed that, even though she was calming down, she could still hear her heart beating quickly. But, no, it wasn't her heart that she was hearing. "Shin?" Sakura asked, tilting her head up to look at the boy, "Is something wrong?"

The mahogany haired boy tilted his face down to meet her eyes only to quickly jerk his head up again. "N-no." The fact that his heart was beating even faster now bellied his response. The stammer didn't help his case any either.

Sakura pulled away from her father-figure's embrace, her eyebrows narrowed as she momentarily forgot about the larger issue at hand. "Are you sure? Because your heart is beating really loudly." Shin wouldn't meet her eyes, and so Sakura did what any five-year-old would do—she reached up and with both hands and turned his face to meet hers. "And your face is hot! Are you sunburnt? Are you si—"

"Kura…" Shin's voice gently cut her off as his hands lightly wrapped around hers and drew them away from his face. Sakura blinked in confusion as Shin continued to hold her hands with his clammy ones. She was really starting to fear that he was sick when the boy spoke again, his face becoming redder by the moment as he struggled to find the proper words, "It is not…I am not…" Pausing, Shin closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then breathed out slowly before he opened his eyes again. His face was only pink now, his eyes determined.

Squaring his shoulders, Shin tightened his hands around hers and looked her straight in the eye. "Kura…I know now might not be the best time…but I do not know that there will be a better time…and I know you probably do not feel the same…at least not yet…but I…I think you should know…that I… I lo—"

"Kura-Chi!" The door slammed open. "Oh, baby brother? You're here too?" Youko blinked twice, taking in the scene. Beside her, her best friend was doing the same, only she didn't look confused. If anything, Karura looked sorry, though why, Sakura would never get to find out, because just then Youko seemed to get an idea as to what was going on between her friend and her brother. As far as Sakura knew, her idea was even correct.

"Oh, Kura-Kura, was it another nightmare?" Slowly Sakura nodded.

And with that, a bear-hug, gentle cooing, rambling speeches, and being dragged down to a late lunch, whatever it was that Shin had been going to tell her was forgotten…swept under the rug by the ever enthusiastic Youko trying to make Sakura forget a nightmare…and in the process, bringing Sakura back to the present problem at hand brought up by said nightmare.

And Youko thought she was succeeding when her pink haired friend randomly asked what phase the moon would be in tonight. Not that she had had the answer. Karura did, though. She even had the scientific name for it: Waning Gibbous. Even though Youko had no clue as to why her friend had brought up the subject, she was glad to see that Karura's answer had made the girl smile.

If Youko hadn't known any better, she'd have thought that Kura's smile looked more relieved than outright happy, but she did know better. Her pink haired friend just needed more distractions to chase her nightmares away…and Youko was more than happy to provide them.

* * *

Well...how was that for drama? Can you feel things starting to come together? Next chapter will show Sakura using her Kekkei Genkai, so please look forward to it. In July I'll be going to a cousin's wedding, so I might not be able to update when I normally do. I'll try to update on July 11th, like normal, but that means that my next normal updating day would be July 25th...which is the day of the wedding...and I'm going to be flying there the day before...and it's going to be a madhouse...so I'm most likely not going to be able to update the 25th...which means I'd either be updating on the 18th or the 2nd of August (not the 1st, because that's another travel day)...and, well, I thought you might like to know. I can't make promises about the upcoming updates thanks to the wedding, so I'll apologize for that ahead of time.

Because someone brought it up, I thought I would explain that the Minato that Sakura met in the previous chapter was not an adult (at least, not in legal terms) and neither was he the Hokage or a Sensei yet. Although Minato was/is leading the mission to Suna, he is doing so (most likely) as a normal Jonin. I didn't mention this in-story because it doesn't really play a part in the overall story line. What I believe it is important for everyone to remember is that this is done from a small child's point of view, and thus anyone over the age of, say, fifteen or so can be mistaken for an adult (especially to a child) so long as they can look and act the part.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to hugs from their favorite characters, flamers, on the other hand, will be left in corner by themselves to think about what they've done while everyone else has fun. Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: RtheAwesome (I'm glad that things make sense for you now), BriEva (I've already answered your review, but just in case anyone else was wondering, I put in an explanation above. As to Cha'ri...well, I think you can see that her character is becoming more and more...different...and as to the dreams...well...I wonder if this chapter changed your mind any), Emilise284 (Thanks, and I try to update every other Friday, so check for an update on Fridays), & Geniusly-Unique (It's always good to hear from you. I've already answered your review, but in case anyone else was wondering and reads this: I use the canon story as a source of material from which I can make my story, and so therefore parts of my story are (and are going to be) very 'canon' however other parts will be very 'non-canon'...but they will come about in realistic ways based on what has already happened. You could think of it as my story existing in an alternate but parallel universe to the real Naruto) for reviewing!


	40. What is Seen

Disclaimer: I'm not blowing hot air here…

Chapter 40: What is Seen

That afternoon one of the strangest things happened. Sakura had just been about to leave the Inn with Youko and Shin to go visit Yashamaru (and by extension, his sister) at the hospital (with the plan of asking where Suna's graveyard was somewhere along the way) when someone had burst into the inn. It was Kirsche, the blues of her eyes swirling everywhere while her pinprick pupils sought something out. It only took Sakura a moment to realize that Kirsche's eyes had the odd opaque glow that only she could see. Finally those pinprick eyes found Sakura. The relief was clear on Kirsche's face as the older girl hurried towards the younger girl and her friends. "Good, you're still here…" was Kirsche's greeting.

Youko's eloquent response was, "Uh…Hi…?" This was accompanied by a weak wave and a lot of staring at Kirsche's face.

Shin was quicker to recover than his sister from the odd sight of irises moving separately from their pupils, although the pitch of his voice expressed what his face did not: that the strange movement was unnerving him. "Did you need something?"

Kirsche didn't respond right away, but when she did, it was when one of her irises briefly snapped back into its proper place. "Oh…yes…yes I do." Kirsche's pupils turned to look at Sakura…and the iris went right back to flying about aimlessly, "I am afraid you won't be able to go visit Yashamaru today." Her pupils briefly lit on the twins as she added, "Though, I thank you for always including her. You've done her a lot of good. Please send the boy her regards." Kirsche's pupils slid back to look at Sakura as she took her hand, not waiting for one of the twins to respond, "Now, come upstairs. There's something I need to speak to you about."

Sakura followed, her mind a sandstorm of thoughts. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on. This wasn't the first time Sakura had seen Kirsche's eyes doing their weird splitting thing—it signified an ocular Hoshi Jutsu after all—but it was the first time Kirsche had ever done so in such a manner. Usually the older Hoshi girl was cool, calm and collected, and whenever her eyes started doing things, it was for a clear reason—usually because she was in the process of showing Sakura how to find something in a vision of the present or past. However this was certainly not the case at the moment. As they moved up the stairs to Kirsche's room, it was clear that Kirsche was flustered…and if this was a lesson, Sakura had no clue what it was that she was supposed to be learning.

Only after the door to Kirsche's room was shut did Sakura ask, "What's wrong? What do you See?"

Kirsche's smile, although beautiful and kind, full of teeth and a joking manner, was by now easily discernable to the five-year-old as fake. "What are you talking about, Sakura? What makes you think I've—" Rather than interrupt, Sakura simply pointed at Kirsche's eyes. For a moment Kirsche's smile faltered, but then she chuckled—not the happy kind of chuckle but rather the how-thoughtless-of-me sort—and a moment later, her irises had returned to their proper places. Strangely, their opaque glow didn't vanish. "Oh, well, I suppose there's no helping it."

Although Sakura couldn't be sure, she thought that Kirsche's eyes were vibrating. Deciding that she did want to know for sure, the pink haired child interrupted whatever Kirsche had been going to say next by asking, "You're still using your Eyes, aren't you? What are you Seeing?"

For a moment Kirsche looked startled, but then she smiled—a real smile this time—and said, "Of course you would notice. Yes, I am still using my Eyes…and what I'm Seeing has to do with why I needed to talk to you." As Kirsche said this, her smile dimmed down. After a brief pause, Kirsche was speaking again and her smile seemed to be the kind that was meant to be calming rather than an actual expression of happiness. "A few hours ago I became aware of a small band of Hoshi entering my barrier."

Although there were many things that this made Sakura want to ask, the question she settled on was "What barrier?"

Kirsche shook her head but answered anyhow, "When we first arrived I set up a barrier of sorts…just so that no Hoshi's would notice our presence—"

"Why?" Sakura interjected, feeling very confused.

"Because you're here, Sakura." When Sakura made it clear that that answered no questions for her, Kirsche continued, "Remember when I told you about the awakening process, that time in the hospital? I had told you that my helping you to come here was unconventional, and that if you lived in the clan it would never be allowed. Well, here we are, in the past, and you were Dream Walking just when a Hoshi strong enough to notice happened to just barely pass through my barrier…and now he and his entourage—his group—are curious about you. They are heading this way."

Sakura tilted her head to the side, still somewhat confused, "Why? And can't we just tell him that I'm here because…"

The pink haired child trailed off. The older pink haired girl was shaking her head. "No, Sakura…because if we did, he would immediately know something was up. You see, in the clan all awakenings are carefully planned by the Pillar—" suddenly Kirsche winced, as if she had said something she hadn't meant to say, but in the blink of an eye her face was serine again as she continued, "by the appointed leader of the clan. Like what I did for you, the Pillar searches through time to find when and where are the best times and places for a child to become one of _Sie Ausdehnung Geheren_. However, unlike your situation, they always arrange for the youth to arrive in the past somewhere near their village…not in the middle of a ninja village…and the Time Walkers in the past often are aware ahead of time that a youth will be appearing."

Slowly Sakura nodded; she understood what Kirsche was saying but not why it mattered. As if reading her mind, Kirsche explained, "You're not supposed to be here…at least, not as far as they're concerned. If they find out that you are here…a youth awakening that they had no prior knowledge of…well, they can't do anything permanent to me, even if they try…but if they find out about you, their Pillar will become…interested. You do _not_ want him interested in you, Sakura. Unlike other Time Walkers, Pillars who have found something interesting can't be stopped from finding out all there is to know about that something…which could include your birth and departure from the clan. He would view your father's actions as a kidnapping, and although his finding out about you now couldn't possibly change your past—at least, not as you know it—but anything that happens now can and will change your future. Somehow I doubt that you would like to return to your original time only to run into a Hoshi who has been sent to find you and take you back to your clan where you would stay for the rest of your life—whether you wanted to or not."

Sakura violently shook her head. She didn't want to be taken away from her friends and family…not permanently. Being gone for a little over two months was already bad enough…sometimes Sakura felt like she had been gone forever…and if not for the fact that she was living with her future family she probably would have felt more than just a little homesick. "So…" Sakura began slowly, trying to ignore the fast beating of her heart brought on by the thought of being torn from her parents and Gaara forever, "…what should we do?"

This time when Kirsche smiled it was the I'm-proud-of-you kind of smile. "I'm glad you asked. _We_ are going to be doing two very different things. At this point there will be no stopping that Dream Walker from finding whoever it was who was strong enough to view the future while in the past—don't look at me like that Sakura. What you've been doing—Time Walking while Dream Walking—is not actually a common Hoshi ability. I'd say that at this time in the past there's only about twenty or so people with that ability…and of those twenty, only maybe four are strong enough to view possible futures in their dreams. Thankfully, the guy who noticed you is only a very strong Dream Walker, not a Time Walker, so he can't See who it was he noticed…all he knows is that there's someone here whose Dream Walking abilities rival his."

Kirsche's smile shifted into a sly smile as she continued, "And we are going to use that to our advantage. Thankfully your capabilities and my own are fairly close. So what I am going to do is go to meet this Dream Walker and his companions, convince them it was me they sensed, and send them on their way as soon as I can. It will probably take a few days, though. What I need you to do in the meantime is not Dream Walk."

"But," Sakura interrupted, "I don't know how? They just happen."

Kirsche nodded, "That's not surprising, especially since we're in the past…we're a little too noticeable to the time stream so it's bound to smother us with visions. The thing about Dream Walking is that it's hard to control. You can influence where your dreams take you, but you cannot force them to show you something if Time won't allow it. In a similar way, you can't stop yourself from Dream Walking if Time really wants to show you something. You can't even always be sure that what you See in your Walking Dream was—or will be—real or if it's just one of many possibilities. All you can be sure is that if you See such a dream there's a reason—but I'm afraid I'm getting off track."

Kirsche shook her head before continuing, "What I should be saying is that as you get older you'll get a better handle on your Dream Walking abilities—they're something you just have to grow into, though you'll never have full control of them—but at the moment there's really only two things that can be done to help diminish the chance of unintentional Dream Walking. The first possibility would be for you to constantly be low on Chakra, but that's not exactly healthy. The second option, and the one I think is the better choice, is that, if you allow me to, I will place a restriction on you so that you are physically incapable of Dream Walking until I return." Sakura hadn't known a Hoshi could do such a thing, but when she started speaking, it wasn't to question Kirsche's capabilities (Kirsche never lied, after all, so if she said she could do something, she could).

"But what will I do until you get back? What if you never come back? What if he likes you so much he takes you away forever and ever?" The more Sakura thought about it, the more frantic she became. Kirsche was the only person Sakura could completely rely on. She was the only Hoshi she could (apparently) trust to teach her without planning to take her away from Suna. She was the only person who knew where Sakura came from and wanted to take her back there. If Kirsche disappeared, Sakura had no clue what she would do.

Kirsche was quick to sooth the child's fears, "Don't worry, I won't let them take me anywhere. To them I plan on being just another traveling Hoshi, here following a vision. Interesting, but not something worth writing home about—at least, not if I have anything to say about it." With that, Kirsche patted Sakura on the head reassuringly and then reached behind her, grabbed something, and then handed it to Sakura. It was the red leather-bound book that Kirsche had been teaching her out of. "While I'm busy distracting them you can practice finding visions of the present—and don't worry, no one in that party is a Time Walker, so they won't notice. If you work on refining your Seeing abilities you will be one step closer to being ready to look for possible futures. Since I won't be around, if you have any questions refer to the book. Now…" Kirsche stood up and offered Sakura a hand, "I need to pack quickly. I can't let them reach the village. While I pack you decide how you want to restrict your Dream Walking."

In less than an hour Kirsche was gone and Sakura was unable to Dream Walk.

* * *

Sakura had planned to have Youko show her where the graveyard (or graveyards—Sakura wasn't sure how many there were in Suna) were on their way to or from the hospital, but now that was not an option. Youko and Shin had left while she was with Kirsche and a quick peek into the room next to hers had shown that Cha'ri was gone. In fact, that had been a slightly embarrassing moment for Sakura, if only because she felt she had done something she shouldn't have. Sakura hadn't knocked before opening her neighbor's door and the brunet's equally brunet mother had slammed a drawer closed on her thumb in surprise at the door's opening—needless to say, she had angrily ordered Sakura out of the room and the child had been quick to obey. Sakura had closed the door before she could see much of the room or the woman she was fairly sure had been in the process of changing clothes (now Sakura knew where Cha'ri got her flat chest from). She had, however, seen enough to know that Cha'ri was absent and so she could not join her in the graveyard hunt.

Sakura had then gone in search of Megumi to ask her for directions to the graveyard. This, however, turned out to be a bad idea. Apparently the inn matron did not feel it was a good idea for a small child with a weak constitution and who was prone to nightmares to go to a graveyard by herself, especially when the only person Megumi could think of that Sakura might know in the graveyard was none other than the baker who—Megumi believed—was the cause of all of Sakura's nightmares. The only directions Sakura ended up with were ones that sent her back upstairs until Shin and/or Youko returned from vising Yashamaru. When Sakura tried to sneak out of the inn to find the graveyard on her own, Megumi caught her. After that, the directions became an order with the added warning that if Sakura wasn't in her room when Megumi came to find her (at some unmentioned time) she would be in so much trouble she'd have a new—living—nightmare to worry about.

That was how Sakura ended up sulking in her room, her eyes green to conserve energy and Kirsche's red leather-bound book on her lap. Sakura had been working her way through the thick tome since they first arrived in New Suna and Kirsche had begun teaching her how to read and speak the Hoshi's Ancient Language. However, it was slow going. Kirsche often gave her lessons based on what the book—recently Sakura had figured out it wasn't so much a book as a journal, not that that changed the facts that its contents so far were almost entirely educational—and Sakura had struggled to translate many passages over the months—both under Kirsche's instructions and in attempts to read ahead. Even so, Sakura had only read maybe the first fourth of what such a thick book had to offer…and even when Kirsche read to her, it was always from the first half of the tome.

Wondering if maybe there was something Kirsche was trying to keep from her (such as how to See the future—something Kirsche, despite all of Sakura's begging, kept telling her it wasn't time for her to learn yet) Sakura flipped the book to the back. With her heart beating nervously, Sakura slowly cracked the back cover open, half expecting some alarm to go off and Kirsche to pop into the room to stop her. Squeezing her eyes shut, Sakura flipped the cover open dramatically. Nothing happened.

Sakura almost burst out laughing. Of course nothing happened. It was just a book—journal…same diff. Slowly and with much excitement, Sakura opened her eyes to find…nothing. The back cover and its reflecting page were blank. This time Sakura did laugh. It wasn't like most journals had writing on their inside covers and Sakura couldn't help but realize that she was acting silly. Still laughing, Sakura flipped the blank page over and saw…nothing…and so she flipped to the next to last page, and then the page after that. It wasn't long before she wasn't laughing anymore. She kept flipping pages—all blank—for a few seconds. After that, Sakura started skipping through large sections, working her way towards the beginning of the book. Sakura was just beginning to fear that the journal had some sort of Jutsu put on it when finally, somewhere near the middle, she opened up a large section to writing.

Sakura couldn't help but sigh in relief…and then she started laughing again. Why would anyone put a Jutsu on a journal so that it could only be read in one direction? Sakura was so absorbed with rolling on the bed, journal in hand, laughing at her own overactive imagination, that she didn't notice when Megumi cracked the door open to check on her. The inn matron was long gone before Sakura calmed down enough quit laughing. Settling on her tummy, Sakura started skimming through the pages, looking for anything that looked like it might teach Sakura the one thing she most wanted to learn: how to See the future.

The first part that she found that seemed hopeful was something that turned out to be about Hoshi's in general, rather than what Hoshi's were capable of. It read: _The Hoshi are a docile people, and it is said that some of them can make other creatures calm, and even obedient, with their gentleness. However, not all Hoshi's have this innate ability, and not all discover that they do until very late in life. Of course, as with many Hoshi abilities, this awakes with the Hoshi's Awakening, though it is possible that it will never be utilized._ Sakura quit reading, not because it wasn't interesting, but because something more interesting had caught her eye. There were hand drawings of eyes—weird eyes—on the next page over…and the next…and the next...for a total of thirty eight pages (although somewhere in the middle of that the pictures had become things other than eyes). Each of the pictures had writing near it. Sakura might not have bothered to stop and translate the writing if one of the pictures hadn't caught her eye. It was a drawing of the Hoshi Eyes.

Reading the words beside the Hoshi's picture ended up being very informative. Although she did not figure out how to See the future, she did find out something Kirsche had never mentioned. There were shortcuts…well…sort of. Although the Eye picture's description didn't contain any specifics about how to do any of the Hoshi Jutsu, it did say that although it was important to learn the entire pattern of movements for each Jutsu, it was possible to use smaller, quicker movements to implement a Jutsu you already were familiar with. It also gave a page number in reference to an example. Excited, Sakura found the page mentioned and found a detailed drawing about a Jutsu that she already knew—the one that held things in place—as well as a brief explanation for how you could adjust the movements so that it only took a second and an abrupt jarring of the hands (or finger or foot etc.) to stop something from moving rather than the complex motions Kirsche had taught her. It also contained a reiteration of the warning that one had to be familiar with the full pattern for the abbreviated pattern to be expected to work as well as additional information that basically stated that abbreviation required a lot of focus and willpower to work properly.

Sakura's immediate reaction to reading this was to sit up and try out the abbreviated pattern, but after three tries she laid back on her bed into a patch of sun. Nothing had happened. Figuring that any further attempts would just be a waste of energy, Sakura decided to do her 'homework'. Closing her eyes—not that, with her Eyes activated, it cut out the sight of her surroundings since she could apparently see through herself, but it did help her concentrate—Sakura moved a finger in the curving motions Kirsche had taught her to start looking through time. It was like she was looking at two transparent pictures that were placed one over the other. Both of them were her room, but from some strangeness she knew that one she was seeing and the other she was Seeing.

The next step, according to Kirsche, was to direct your thoughts towards what it is you want to See and use a counterclockwise figure-eight sort of motion as well a few hand flicks to push the vision to that desired outcome. Sakura knew exactly what she wanted to see. It only took a few moments for Sakura's split-vision to become much more obvious. Sakura could still see her room, but now she could also See a graveyard. The longer she looked at the empty plot of land, the less she noticed her room, her mind instead focusing on taking in every detail of the place and matching it to what she could remember of her dream. The only problem was that most of what she remembered about the dream had to do with Aniki, not the background.

After a few minutes of memorizing the scene, Sakura decided to try something a little different. Repeating the earlier hand movements, Sakura tried to pose a question in her mind; namely if there were any other burial places in Suna. Sakura half expected nothing to happen, but what she ended up getting was a barrage of images, one flashing right after the other. It wasn't until she Saw in one image a child burying what looked like a lizard that she realized what she had done wrong. Without knowing quite how she did it, Sakura stopped the onslaught of images, leaving behind only her original graveyard. She tried again, only this time with more specifics in her mental inquiry.

Sakura's vision ended up splitting yet again. Now she Saw three different images at the same time. One was still her bedroom, which she immediately ignored, and one was still the first graveyard that she had seen, but now there was a new image. This looked more like a memorial than an actual graveyard…but, as Sakura looked around at the land, she found that there were still headstones, only instead of just words, these ones also contained the symbol of Suna. Now Sakura really wished she could revisit her dream. If she could just remember whether the grave Aniki had been in front of had the symbol or not she would know which was the correct graveyard. The problem was, she couldn't remember.

Frustrated, Sakura deactivated her Eyes and turned to her book, hoping to find something in there that might help. In the end, she got frustrated with her fruitless search as well. It wasn't that she wasn't finding anything interesting—or even useful—because she did. She even found a number of lovely sketches of variations of the freezing Jutsu that were meant to alter the original Jutsu slightly, such as not allowing movement of solids past the barrier but allowing liquids and gasses, however she found nothing on either Seeing the future or how to find and repeat specific Walking Dreams (not that she could have done so anyway even if she had found it, thanks to Kirsche's restrictions on her).

Deciding it was time to take a break, Sakura put aside the journal and got out 'Herbs: Healers and Killers'. She only had a few more chapters left. It wasn't until she was on the final page, reading about the hopes for the future of medicine, that Sakura remembered she had wanted to tell Aniki when she finished…she also wanted to go and find that bookseller who had told her she wouldn't be able to do it and rub it in their face…but Aniki was the one that stood out in her mind as more important. It was only then that Sakura thought to try to See Aniki.

Laying back down in the sunlight, her finished book clutched to her chest with one hand, Sakura activated her Eyes and sought out her big bother figure. This vision of Aniki working on a puppet came easily. When Sakura saw the clock beside Aniki and compared it to the one she could still see in her bedroom she instantly understood why. The vision had been easy to call because this was three hours in the past…and the past was so much easier to See.

This time Sakura didn't even have to think about what to do—her hands just flicked out in the proper motions on their own—and suddenly the scene before her fast-forwarded. If Sakura had actually been physically watching the transition, she would have been blinking crazily trying to reorient herself—instead her eyes remained closed and she simply had to adjust to the sudden change in position and time without the added benefit of eyelids. Now—literally right now—Aniki was standing before the Kazekage (the black haired one, not Katsu), his face even more stone-like than normal. Sadly, if there was a way to get audio in these visions, Sakura didn't know what it was or how to do it; therefore all she knew was that the two stoic males were conversing…which was rather boring.

Instead of continuing to watch two statues talk Sakura's mind drifted back to the graveyards…and so did her visions. The transition was so easy that Sakura wasn't sure if she was looking in the past again or if she was just getting better at this whole Seeing business. Either way, it didn't matter because what she would see would likely be exactly the same. What she really needed was to figure out where these graveyards were…perhaps that would help her figure out which was the right one. It was a long shot, but Sakura decided it was worth it. The hard part would be figuring out how to adjust her visions so that she could figure out where the graveyards were and how to get to them.

A long time later Sakura released her Kekkei Genkai and rubbed her tired eyes. Although it had taken forever and she had almost given up over a dozen times…she now knew the paths to the two graveyards. One was fairly close to the inn—so close, in fact, that Sakura was surprised she hadn't seen it before—and the other was out near the edge of the village, almost on the opposite side of the village from the inn. If Sakura had had the energy, she might have tried to sneak away despite Megumi's earlier warnings, but she was too tired. Without even the oomph to move, Sakura curled up with her herb book in the pocket of sunshine on her bed…and fell into a dreamless sleep.

What felt like only a few minutes later Megumi was waking her up, informing her that if she slept any longer she wouldn't get any sleep that night. Sakura sat up slowly, disagreeing with Megumi entirely and letting her know it with her glare. The older woman only laughed and called her cute before changing her mind and saying that she would be cute once they tamed her hair. As it turned out, the pigtail braids Cha'ri had done for her hadn't fared well—what with her encounter with the thorn bush and sleeping on it twice in one day, it was a mess. Megumi fixed the problem patiently, waiting for Sakura to wake up more before she started a conversation about what they should make for dinner. It wasn't until her hair was pulled up in a wavy ponytail and the two of them were heading down to the kitchen that Sakura realized that the blanket of sunshine on her bed had hardly moved from where she last remembered it.

She might really have only slept for a few minutes after all…how disappointing.

* * *

And that is that. I hope you all enjoyed this insight into Sakura's abilities.

**IMPORTANT:** As I said last chapter, my cousin is getting married on July 25th, and so when exactly my next update will be is not exactly known. I don't know what the internet situation is going to be like out there or how much free time I'll have...so basically I can only give you a rough time-frame of when to expect the next chapter. **If I get a lot of reviews** (certainly more than I've been getting recently), I might think about posting the next chapter before I fly out to my cousin's (between the 18th and 22nd), and if that doesn't happen and I find myself too busy with the wedding and family time activities (or if there's no internet) I might not be able to update until the 1st or 2nd of August.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to a cup of tea…flamers are also welcome to the tea…the only difference is that they will be wearing it instead of drinking it. Now, let's move on the the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Geniusly-Unique (I don't blame you for finding the whole 'Kaneko's girl' thing funny, because it was meant to be. And you are right about Sakura realistically transitioning into her powers. I try hard show her development rather than directly mentioning it in text, because sometimes that just feels tacky), ZellaLaBella (oh, that _would_ be terribly awkward for her...this is assuming, of course, that she realizes that a confession of romantic love was what he was attempting. She would be much more likely to think he was speaking as her father-figure), & BriEva (I'm so glad to hear from you. I was actually worried when you didn't review right away. I was even thinking of PMing you. You are certainly right about the upcoming ending for this part of the story...well, upcoming in my terms anyways. I think that since she never met Karura in her real time that although Sakura is aware she is going to die, she doesn't really think about it because it doesn't effect her. It will more likely hit her after she returns. Yes, the Konoha ninja are likely gone already, although I haven't decided that for sure yet. As to Cha'ri, the next chapter will have two more major scenes for you to wrack your brain over...and certain secrets will likely be revealed in the chapter after that) for reviewing!


	41. Of Ninja and Warnings

Disclaimer: …I suppose I'm not blowing cold air either…even though this is a 'fan' fiction…

Chapter 41: Of Ninja and Warnings (Missed and Ignore)

Sakura was helping to cut carrots for dinner when a loud voice called from the kitchen doors. "Mama-Megumi!"

Unfamiliar with the deep voice, Sakura turned just as Megumi called back from the farthest reaches of the Kitchen and well out of sight, "Hello, Ryu-dear, is Shin with you?" Despite the warmth in the woman's voice, the pink haired child's grip on her small knife slackened in shock when she realized that there was an intimidatingly large man standing in the doorway, his profile in shadow. She didn't even know the knife had slipped from her fingers until the big man disappeared from his position at the door. In the blink of an eye he was in front of her, the knife in one hand.

Sakura's natural reaction was to take a step back in fear, but in the next moment Shin was pushing the tall fellow a few steps back and the tall man was apologizing for startling her. With that, the frightening air around the stranger dissipated. It wasn't long before he wasn't a stranger anymore.

Clearing his throat, Shin introduced the two of them, "Kura, this is Ryu, a friend of mine. He is also Mrs. Mebuki's youngest. Ryu, this is Kura…the girl I was telling you about." The walking mountain named Ryu grinned from ear to ear, suddenly looking much younger than Sakura's first impression of him had led her to believe.

"She's cute." Sakura couldn't help but go red at this statement. Strangely, so did Shin, who immediately elbowed his friend and hissed something under his breath that Sakura didn't catch. Ryu laughed at whatever Shin had said, ruffled the boy's hair affectionately, and then turned his attention back to Sakura. "What? It's true." And then, completely ignoring Sakura's blushing and another elbow-jab from Shin, Ryu flipped the knife in the air, caught it by the blade with two fingers, and then handed it handle first back to Sakura. "I believe this is yours, young lady."

Ignoring the 'young lady' comment, Sakura asked, her eyes wide as she accepted the knife back, "How did you do that?"

Both Shin and Ryu looked taken aback for a moment, but soon Ryu, at least, was smiling again. "Oh, that's simple—I simply threw it as if it were a kunai—knifes and kunai aren't much different after all."

Sakura blinked once in confusion, but before she could ask anything, Shin spoke up, sounding exasperated, "What Ryu has forgotten to tell you, is that he is a Genin."

Before Sakura realized it might be rude, she asked, "Isn't he too old to be a Genin?"

Instead of getting angry, Ryu immediately started laughing. After a few moments, he burst out, "Goodness—how old do you think I am? Wait, don't tell me!" Then, after some more laughing, he gasped, "I can see why you like her so much, Shin, she's hilarious." Ryu then turned to Sakura, still shaking from withheld laughter, and explained, "I'm only fourteen," and then, before Sakura could apologize for the mistake, he added, "but don't worry about it—it happens all the time. When Yuma and I—that's my sister, by the way—are seen by strangers, we've been mistaken for a couple…and she's nearly fifteen years older than me! I remember when Yuma first introduced me to the guy who she's now engaged to—he was so jealous since he didn't know yet, and—"

Shin cleared his throat, breaking off his friend's monolog. Any lingering fear that Sakura might have felt disappeared as the giant boy shrank into his sandals as Shin simply gave him a look that Sakura knew all too well…it was the look her father figure gave her when he thought she was misbehaving. "Ah…right…sorry, Shin, Kura…" the large youth said, rubbing the back of his head, "…didn't mean to get off on a tangent."

The moment Megumi seemingly popped out of nowhere—startling Sakura—with loud greetings for Ryu, was the same moment Sakura felt a hand touch her own. Swiveling, Sakura found Shin by her side, removing the knife from her grip before she dropped it a second time. As he placed the sharp object back on the table beside them Sakura asked him if he and his friend were going to stay for dinner. Shin responded with a shrug and might have actually said something if just then Ryu hadn't called out loudly, "Oi, Shin, I don't remember! What was the name of that person you wanted me to see? The one you said we should ask your mom about since she always knows where everyone is at all times!"

Shin stiffened and, if it wasn't a trick of the light, both blushed and went pale as he stole a glance in Sakura's direction. He quickly shuffled over to his friend and his mother, his hands now stuffed in his pockets as he answered quietly. Despite the softness of his voice, Sakura heard every word of it. "It was Ocha…I think her first name was Riku…"

"Riko," Sakura corrected Shin while bouncing up to him, happy to be of help. It wasn't until he hesitantly thanked her without meeting her eyes that she wondered if maybe he had spoken quietly in the hopes that she wouldn't hear. She couldn't think of any reason why that might be the case, though, and so when Ryu gave her another explanation, Sakura went with it.

"Wait, it's a girl that you wanted me to see?"Ryu exclaimed, "Don't tell me you're trying to get me a girlfriend!"

Before Shin could respond Sakura clapped happily and hopped over to the giant. Looking up (and up, and up), Sakura grinned. "I think you two might be good together!"

Ryu bent practically in half to look her in the eye and asked almost jokingly, "Oh really? And why's that?"

The response was easy to find. "Because you both are really friendly and talk a lot!" Sakura hadn't meant it to be a joke, but both Ryu and Megumi started laughing. Only Shin remained silent, looking at her as if she'd grown a second head. "What?" Sakura asked defensively, "It's true!"

It was Megumi who stopped acting strange first and gave her an explanation. "Oh, Kura," the inn matron began with a hint of happiness, "you are too sweet. Although I think you've got a pretty good handle on young Ryu here—especially considering you two only just met, which makes it even funnier—I don't know if that poor girl could really be called friendly. She only opens up to you." Sakura tried to argue, but Megumi just shook her head and added a bit more somberly, "But you are right that there are some similarities…however I don't think our Ryu would be a good fit for the girl. If her family situation's what I think it is…she'd probably be happier with a fellow civilian. Oh!" Megumi gasped, turning to look at Shin, "Was that why you wanted Ryu to meet her? Because you wanted him to use his ninja ways to find out if the girl is—" Megumi's eyes shot towards Sakura before she turned back to Shin to finish carefully, "—if she is okay?"

Shin also looked first at Sakura before he shrugged in answer, mumbling something under his breath that sounded like 'close enough'.

Sakura might have asked what they were trying to keep from her if just then a kettle on the stove-top hadn't started whistling. After that, Megumi, remembering why they were having this conversation in the kitchen, shooed the boys out so that she and Sakura could finish cooking. When Shin asked again about Cha'ri, Megumi replied that last she knew, the brunet was up in her room with her mother. As she literally pushed her son and his mountain-sized friend out of the doors, she added that they should wait until after dinner before bothering 'the poor dear'.

* * *

Less than an hour latter Megumi informed Sakura that the food was almost ready and that the girl should go inform the other inn-goers that dinner would be served in ten minutes. Sakura rushed to obey, her tummy already grumbling from all of the delicious smells. Sakura had finished informing everyone on the first floor and was heading towards the second when she heard something that made her stop in her tracks near the foot of the stairs. It was the sound of voices arguing. Slowly Sakura ascended the stairs, keeping low to the steps as she tried to catch sight of who was fighting. If it was Cha'ri and her father again she would go get Megumi. Sakura didn't exactly feel like being thrown around again.

Just before Sakura reached the point along the stairs at which she would be able to see the speakers, she heard her brunet friend's distinctive voice shout, "G'away ya stink'n vermin!" Sakura winced. She had told Megumi about the conversation she'd overheard earlier, so she now knew how rude it was to call someone a 'vermin'; however she was also aware that there was more than one meaning to the word. Wondering if perhaps Cha'ri was talking to an actual rat, Sakura scampered up a few more steps to get a better look. She froze, her head just popping over the landing as a loud thud echoed through the building.

"You threw a book at me!" The incredulous sounding voice belonged to Ryu. And as Sakura could now see, standing beside the large boy was none other than Shin. From the looks of things, they had disregarded Megumi's warning about waiting until after dinner to talk to Cha'ri.

When the brunet threw another book at Ryu while blatantly ignoring Shin who was trying to intervene, Sakura decided that the timing didn't seem to be the real problem. Instead the 'problem' seemed to be Ryu, but for the life of her, Sakura couldn't think of a reason why. Sure Ryu was big and scary looking at first, but he was nice and friendly too. Even if his size had intimidated the brunet, surely his disposition would have soon shone through, proving him to be completely harmless.

After shouting a lot of profanities—half of which Sakura had never even heard of before—at Ryu, Cha'ri jabbed a finger at Shin, hissing, "I don't know what you thought you were doing…but take your pet murderer elsewhere." Sakura was just wondering why Cha'ri might think Ryu killed pets when the girl stomped to her room, threw the door open, and then spat out angrily before slamming the door shut, "I hate ninja!"

Sakura couldn't move…couldn't breathe. The only thing she could do was listen to the echoes of her friend's parting statement and wonder if Cha'ri would hate her too. Sakura was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even realize the boys had noticed her until Ryu was patting her shoulder in what was probably supposed to be a comforting way. "Don't worry about it, little lady…" the big boy began softly, "I don't take those kinds of things to heart. Merchant kids like her tend to see the worst in everything."

Shin removed the older boy's hand from her shoulder, giving him a strange look, which, under different circumstances, Sakura would have been curious about. Instead, she barely even noticed it. She was still hearing echoes of hatred when Shin asked softly, "Are you alright?" Sakura barely nodded her head yes after he asked his question a second time. The boy looked somewhat relieved…but it was a lie. She was not alright. After a few seconds of studying her face, Shin hesitantly put a hand on her arm and asked while leaning in closer to her, "Are you sure?"

Not wanting to worry her father figure, Sakura closed her eyes and forced a grin onto her face. "I'll be alright." This Sakura at least hoped was not a lie. When Shin gave her an unconvinced look, Sakura chose to change the subject, "By the way, Megumi say's dinner is almost ready. I'm supposed to go tell everyone. I helped make the soup, so you'll have to tell me how I did…I'll be right down as soon as I finish telling everyone else, so save me a seat!" And with that, Sakura ran up the remaining stairs, past her brunet friend's door, and to the farthest reaches of the inn's second floor. She waited to start knocking on doors until she heard the two boys continue down the stairs (from the sound of it, Shin had wanted to follow her but Ryu—bless his heart—had convinced him to let her 'have some space').

There were only a few other people who resided on the second floor aside from herself, the twins and the Ocha's, and after knocking on doors, she soon realized that none of them were in their rooms. Feeling dread and not fully understanding why, the five-year-old turned nine-year-old slowly made her way to her last stop. It was half a minute before she could force herself to knock. No one replied. Sakura knocked again. She knew Cha'ri was in there. Trying to keep her voice from trembling, Sakura spoke to her friend through the door, "Cha'ri? Dinner's ready…do you want to come eat with me?"

Sakura was just about to give up on getting a response when the door inched open and Cha'ri poked out her head. "Sorry…Kura…but I don' feel like eatin' right now…" With a weak smile, Cha'ri added, "…thank ya, though…maybe later...but right now I've lost m' appetite." Then, just as slowly as the door had opened, it closed, leaving Sakura just as alone in the hallway as she had been before.

Not quite sure how she did it, Sakura made her way back downstairs to eat with Shin and Ryu. The boys tried to keep the conversation light, talking about their day (Ryu had just returned from an escort mission and Shin had to report that Yashamaru was enjoying his time in the hospital and that Youko had been volunteered by one of her superiors to remain at the hospital to help with the sudden influx of patients with summer-colds), their plans for the future (Ryu was only looking so far as to entering the Chunin exam this year where as a blushing Shin had finally admitted that he hoped to get married someday), and even their sisters (according to Ryu, his sister Yuma could scare a grown ninja with her glares even though she was just a civilian…and since this 'Yuma' person was Mrs. Mebuki's daughter, Sakura believed him, meanwhile Shin explained that what made his sister terrifying—aside from her fashion sense—was the fact that she never made idle threats…whatever that meant). And although Sakura laughed and conversed as if everything was normal, it was blaringly obvious to everyone at the table, herself included, that the words Cha'ri had spoken were still heavy in all of their hearts.

* * *

After dinner Sakura helped Megumi cleanup, glad for the distraction, and after that she begged for more things to do. Megumi, apparently thinking that she was distressed by Kirsche's absence, handed her a cloth and set her to dusting. As Sakura worked, she came to the understanding that Megumi might have been more right than she originally though…a part of her nerves might be because Kirsche was gone. Ever since she had met Kirsche, the older girl had always been a very constant aspect in her life, and her sudden departure shook Sakura's world. Put on top of that her good friend's sudden and unexplainable hurtful words and Sakura couldn't help but feel like the world was crashing down around her.

When Sakura had finished dusting everything she could reach and neither Youko nor Karura had returned from the hospital—yet another change from what had become a constant schedule Sakura had unconsciously fallen into—the pink haired child became even more restless. Looking for more work, Sakura sought out Megumi. Strangely, Sakura found the inn matron long before she reached the kitchen; however, she was in the middle of what sounded like a very deep conversation with three other people.

Not wanting to interrupt the woman, Sakura set her dust cloth where Megumi would be sure to see it and then ran up to her room. Grabbing a pillow and the one book Sakura knew would take all of her attention to be able to understand, the little girl returned to the hallway. After noting that there were no lights on in the Ocha's room, Sakura set the pillow down beside their door and then sat on it. She had decided to learn more about her Kekkei Genkai as she waited for Cha'ri to make an appearance…even if that meant sitting there until morning.

Opening the red, leather-bound journal to a random page, Sakura began reading. As before, she still couldn't find anything regarding Seeing the future, but she did stumble upon an interesting paragraph explaining what to do if one ever accidentally used a Hoshi Jutsu they hadn't been taught…or at least hadn't been taught how to undo. Sakura stored the instructions in the back of her mind—just in case—and continued reading until memories of Cha'ri started interrupting her thoughts again. After that, Sakura closed her currently blue eyes and forced her mind towards something else. When her thoughts lit on Aniki and the graveyard, she knew she had found the perfect distraction.

Not feeling tiered in the least, Sakura did the necessary hand movements and let her Sight take her back to the graveyards. She must have done something right this time, because the sun was setting in both pictures, just as it was outside of the Inn's window. For once she had gone directly to the present, not the past. Distantly Sakura felt herself giggle as she thought about how she now only had to be able to find the future and she'd be set, but soon all of her attention was back on the two graveyards and trying to find Aniki's mysterious attacker. Soon Sakura's hands were moving instinctively as she tried to manipulate the images, searching desperately for any clues. Sadly the only things she got out of this experience was a glimpse of the moon (mostly full, but not completely full, just as Karura had said it would be), the ten or so skimpy clouds scuttling around the sky (nothing at all like the single bunny-shaped cloud from her dream), as well as a few last-minute visitors to one of the graveyards (they were all civilians with no hints of kunai visible on their person).

Sakura let the visions fall to the back of her perceptions as she clutched the red journal to her chest and then leaned her head down on her knees, the book and her arms tucked between her knees and body. More than anything, what she really wanted was to see a vision of the future. Scowling into her knees, Sakura wished she could do something. She felt so useless. She didn't have many ideas about how to find Aniki's attacker aside from looking at the graveyard and hoping to catch a glimpse of them beforehand (by which time it would probably be too late anyways). She could try to find Aniki to warn him—and if she had to, she would—but she had to wonder if he would believe her, or, like Shin, dismiss her visions as just a dream.

Sakura let her mind drift to another dream she was unsure of. The dreams of fire. Unlike the pushing dream or the graveyard dream, Sakura wasn't sure if these dreams were real or not. Something in their clarity made her feel like they might be Walking Dreams…but at the same time, something in the way they were presented to her seemed more like a recurring nightmare. None of her other Walking Dreams—not even the pushing dream that had shown her different possible outcomes—had been separated by days. She'd only ever dreamed of the fire once a night, and every night it was somehow different…different but also the same…just like Cha'ri.

Sakura winced, hugging her book closer to herself. She had been trying not to think about that…but there it was. What had happened to the brunet? What had Ryu or Shin said to make her so upset? Or had it just been the fact that Ryu was a ninja? But why would that make her act so strangely? It's not like they weren't in the middle of a ninja village…surely Cha'ri had run into other ninja before today. And if Cha'ri had met other ninja and acted this way, wouldn't Sakura have heard about it…wouldn't Megumi have heard and warned the boys? Or had she warned them? Sakura couldn't quite remember, but she thought Megumi had said something about Cha'ri being better with a civilian…but at the time it hadn't seemed like that kind of warning…so why…?

Before the pink haired child could contemplate any further, a voice was calling her name. "Hey, Kura."

Sakura's head shot up as Cha'ri appeared at the top of the steps (and here Sakura had thought she was still holed up in her room). The brunet was holding a steaming mug in her hands and her brown eyes landed on Sakura. She smiled vibrantly. When Sakura's smile wasn't as bright in return, though, the teen's mouth momentarily fell into a frown. "Now, wha's this? Please don' tell me you're unhappy that I skipped dinner?" When Sakura only looked up at Cha'ri, her eyes sad, Cha'ri added, "If it makes ya feel better, I just grabbed a bit o'the leftovers." This time Sakura did smile, even if it was small and weak, but she also shook her head. "If that's not it, then wha' is it?" Cha'ri asked. Settling down beside Sakura on the floor and leaning against the wall, she added offhandedly, "Oh, and by the way, I made this for ya. I's chamomile tea, and it shouldn't be bitter, since I sweetened it for ya." Only after Sakura released the book on her lap and took the cup, looking confused, did Cha'ri explain, "I heard ya aint been sleeping well lately…and i's supposed t' help ya sleep, so drink up."

Sakura smiled into the cup, smelling the murky brown liquid questioningly. It didn't smell bad at all. Trying to put off having to explain why she was moping, Sakura took a sip, only to have to turn all of her concentration towards not making a strange face. The tea didn't taste bad, per say, but it didn't really taste good, either. Although Sakura had never thought such a thing was possible, Cha'ri might have gone overboard with the sweetening. Still, aware that Cha'ri was watching her, Sakura decided to drink it anyways. She didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings…not even when her friend had hurt her feelings earlier that evening—not that Cha'ri was likely aware that she had done so. Cha'ri waited until she had downed half of the mug before she restated her earlier question about what was wrong.

Although Sakura didn't really want to talk about it, she also did. Despite how rude it might be or if it ruined their friendship forever, a part of Sakura had to know. "Cha'ri…" Sakura began carefully, "…you hate ninja?"

Brown eyes narrowed instantly as Cha'ri growled out venomously, "Yes!" Sakura couldn't help but flinch at the passion in the brunet's voice. Cha'ri noticed, and tried to speak a bit more calmly, "Yes, I do. They're vermin who only know how to lie and betray. I hate them…I hate them all!" The venom was back, and so was Sakura's melancholy. Sakura knew that Cha'ri was unaware of it, but her words were cutting into the pink haired child, like kunai.

Trying to bite back tears, Sakura set down her cup on the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees before she whispered into the book on her lap, "I want to be a ninja."

When only silence greeted her statement, Sakura was afraid to lift her head from her knees. She was afraid to see hate and revulsion on the brunet's face. When the silence had gone on for too long, Sakura had to look up, just to make sure Cha'ri hadn't silently gotten up and left her. But no, Cha'ri was still there…looking both shocked…and yet somehow now shocked at all. When the brunet's eyes met Sakura's, she sighed and mumbled under her breath, so quietly that Sakura almost didn't hear her, "Of course you do…" Laughing weakly, Cha'ri wrapped an arm around Sakura, speaking more audibly this time "…a'course…they're good at brainwashin'." The one armed hug soon became a two armed hug as Cha'ri whispered desperately, sounding as if she were about to cry, "…Oh, Kura, please don' ever let them get ta ya…don't let 'em fool ya…ninja…we…they…can't trust 'em…they only bring harm…"

Here Sakura had to interrupt, though she tried to do it kindly. "Not all ninja are bad." When Cha'ri only tightened her hold on Sakura, the pink haired girl shifted to hug the girl back. "Really…" she tried to explain, "…there are good ninja too. I have lots of friends that are ninja…or who want to be ninja…and I want to be a ninja…and…we aren't bad."

Cha'ri, seeming to notice that Sakura was trying to comfort her, snorted and broke off the hug to wipe at her eyes. When finally she spoke, it was bitterly, "A'course ya aint bad, Kura…you're just a child…an innocent little child…and I don't want ya t' be tainted. Ninja…ninja are good at turning little children into monsters." Sakura shook her head, preparing to protest some more, when Cha'ri shook her own head. "It's true…Kura…I've seen it." Sakura opened her mouth to protest again, but once more Cha'ri interrupted her, "Have ya heard of the Bloody Mist, Kura?" Cha'ri only gave her time to shake her head no before she continued, her voice tight, "Well, Kiri has been earning that nickname…because they brainwash children, turning 'em into heartless monsters. Did ya know, Kura, that in Kiri the final exam to become a Genin is t' fight classmates t' the death. I's a bloodbath."

Sakura could hear the horror in her friend's voice and couldn't help but shiver in response. The picture Cha'ri was painting wasn't pretty…but that wasn't Suna…or Konoha…and Sakura knew there were good ninja in those villages. She also knew, thanks to a private conversation with Karura, the rules about becoming a Suna Genin. According to Karura, her brother and his classmates had to pass a written exam, and then they had to prove they knew all of the basic ninja arts. Karura had explained that any Suna citizen who was able to pass both tests in front of witnesses had to be granted their forehead protectors. She had said nothing about killing classmates.

"Not all ninja are like that." Sakura expressed again, going on to tell her friend what Karura had told her about Suna's process. She ended the explanation by saying, "I want to be a good ninja."

Cha'ri scoffed, "There's no such thing as good ninja. In Ame the ninja are even killing their own civilians and in—"

Before the brunet could say anymore, Sakura interrupted, "There are too good ninja! Kumiko saved my life and Gaara's life." Sakura's emotions were so strong, she didn't even notice that she had slipped up or that she was starting to talk about a future event that she had promised herself not to let out. She continued on hotly, "The bad men who tried to hurt us were the bad guys—and they weren't' even ninja! Kumiko was a ninja, and she saved us! Well…" Sakura demurred, the fire slightly waning from her veins, "…Kirsche helped too…but that's why I want to be like both of them. I want to be a strong Hoshi and a strong ninja so I can help people. I'll be a good ninja, you'll—" Sakura had to break off because of a yawn before she finished, "…you'll see."

The brunet's response was to shake her head disbelievingly and change the subject by asking about the book in Sakura's lap. Happy for the change, Sakura lifted the journal up and showed her friend the difficult writing system she was learning from Kirsche. Cha'ri exclaimed (sounding rather more excited than she looked) that she had never seen anything like it before in her life. Between yawns and a brief statement that she thought the tea must be working, Sakura explained how Kirsche said that the journal was written a long time ago in the Ancient Language of the Hoshi and that it explained how to do a lot of Hoshi things (things which, even extremely tiered, Sakura knew better than to detail).

After that they talked about the necklace Sakura was wearing, how she got it at her birthday party from Megumi, as well as what other presents she got. Somewhere in the middle of this conversation Cha'ri pressed the mug back into her hands, reminding her that her drink was getting cold and how she wanted to have a good sleep that night. Sakura only sipped at the lukewarm beverage. She wanted to sleep well and be polite…but somehow the colder the tea got the worse it tasted.

Setting the cup aside yet again, Sakura hugged the journal to her chest and leaned her head against the brunet's shoulder, fighting yet another yawn. Hoping to distract Cha'ri from noticing that the mug was still practically half-full, Sakura asked her brown eyed friend if she wanted to be a tea seller when she grew up, and when the answer was a vehement no, she asked what it was she did want to be. The response, when it finally came, sounded distant to Sakura, as if the girl were speaking halfway across the room rather than from right beside her. "…a doctor…I always wanted t' be a doctor…t' heal people…but it'll never happen…"

Sakura tried to respond, to say that she should try anyhow, even if her parents did want her to take up the family business, but all that came from her mouth was a jumbled mess of incoherent words.

Almost asleep, Sakura felt arms lift her up and a quiet voice that had to belong to Cha'ri whispering, "You'll see… even if you call them friend…even if they save your life… in the end…all ninja are monsters…all of…" Sakura heard no more as darkness wrapped around her.

* * *

And that's a wrap, folks. Big events are on the horizon, so I hope you are all prepared. This chapter had a lot of hints (including the title), so I hope some people catch them...and if you think you have caught the hint(s), feel free to tell me what you think they are about. I always love to hear from my readers. It's kind of disappointing when my review numbers are in the low single digits even though my reader count is in the triple digits.

I didn't have any time to write while I was at my cousins; there were 20+ people in the house at all times...and that includes 6+ children that I often had to mind/play with...so peaceful writing time was not exactly present. I got this chapter finished before I left—lucky for you. I'll try to update in two weeks like I normally do (so around Aug 15th), but I'm going to start getting really busy again (blame school and life), so I cannot absolutely promise.

OK, so** big news**, I now have a SoundCloud account. On this account I have posted an audio preview for all of you who wished for me to write a Sakura/Sasori fic. I believe that you should be able to hear it without having to get an account yourself since I made it public (and if you do have to make an account, it's free).** I have a link to this audio-recording on my profile page**. I hope you all like it. I did the best I could, considering I have no way to edit the audio-recording. If this works for people, I might try posting a few other audio-recordings, such as one or two for Kindred Spirits. The only limit on this is that apparently with the free account you can only post up to 120 minutes of audio, so I'll have to pick and choose what I put up. If you want to make any comments to me about the recording, send me a PM here on fanfiction if you can't leave a message on SoundCloud.

As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome into my humble abode...flames, however, will have to stick it out in the cold on their own, because I don't want them. Now, let's move on to the pretty list!

Thanks to: BriEva (Yeah, Kirsche was kind of distracted...and that also shows that even someone like her can mess up. Yes, her barrier is large, but then again, it's only acting against one very specific thing, so it would be easier for Kirsche to maintain...if that makes sense. And you were right, Sakura did read the journal. I hope that these two Cha'ri scenes are making you think. I plan on revealing the truth in the next chapter or so), Emilise284 (Well, as you've probably noticed, Sakura is still able to Time Walk, she only can't Dream Walk. I loved how you got all excited for Aniki, and then were like 'oh, and that Kazekage guy as well', it made me laugh), Geniusly-Unique (I haven't decided yet for sure if 'those Hoshi' are going to actually make an appearance. I have an idea for it, but I'm not sure if it will actually make it in the story yet. And yes, you are right that the conversation with the Kazekage was more important than Sakura deemed it...but I think that shows just how young Sakura really is. At the moment, politics mean nothing to her. Oh, and I also should mention that I found you on Deviant Art and I left you a few messages on some of your pics), & ZellaLaBella (well, more like we don't want the Pillar interested...and yes, that would be bad...very bad) for reviewing!


	42. Dilemmas

Disclaimer: I would be in a bit of a pickle if I claimed otherwise…

Chapter 42: Dilemmas

The brown haired young teen started to slip from the room, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Where are you going, Rikuto?" hissed the man who owned the hand, his voice quiet despite its anger, "It's not time yet." Normally the brunet would be frightened of this man who called himself his Jonin sensei—his little sister's life depended on his obeying the brute's every command, after all—but tonight their mission would be over, and one way or the other he and his sister would be free.

"I know," the boy named Rikuto whispered, "I have something I have to do beforehand. In preparation…" He didn't say for what as he silently exited the room; he knew that the brute was capable of coming up with his own explanation. Tonight was the night that they would finally be able to finish their mission in Suna, and although Rikuto was a rather reluctant participant, he would play a pivotal role. If their mission was a success, the only part he would play tonight would be to provide the method for killing their target. Rikuto sometimes wished he had never told anyone he had an interest in poisons for their medicinal uses. If he hadn't said anything, he likely would have been overlooked by the so called Genin Recruiters of the village Hidden in the Mist.

Rikuto slipped into the kitchen—it was late enough that few people would be coming there, and even if they did, he had an excuse, not to mention his disguise—but the place was, for once, empty. Quickly gathering the materials he had come for, Rikuto slipped back out of the kitchen and into a small room that no one ever used. Once there, he brought out the powders he had kept hidden on him and began to prepare them with a small, sad smile. Rikuto had always wanted to be a doctor, but Mist had turned him into a monster. Not that he was strong, or fast, or good with his weapons—as far as he and half of Mist was concerned, he didn't have what it took to be a ninja—but he was good with poisons, and that was the only reason he had passed his graduation exam alive. If not for the fate of his sister, he would have rather died than kill…and if Chacha knew that her big brother had provided top notch poison for an assassination attempt, she would be heartbroken…if she knew what his orders were in the case of the assassination attempt failing, she would disown him on the spot.

If the two Anbu traveling with him failed to kill their target with his poison-laced weapons, Rikuto would have to destroy all evidence of their ever having been there. Mist could not be implicated. If he did as he was ordered, though, many people would die. If he didn't, a college of his supposed sensei would kill Chacha. In the end, Rikuto had no choice. Everything was already in place in case the mission was a failure—although he hadn't told the brute that. It was better that the man think that he was down here finishing up something to do with their getaway plan. The truth was, he was down here because of his sister…or more to the point, someone who could practically be his sister.

In the Mist academy he had learned to never make friends. He was only supposed to care for himself and his village (not that he ever considered Mist his village—he had originally been a civilian in a nearby town). This was supposed to make him a hardened fighter, willing to cut down anyone, even his 'best friend'…a monster willing to make the ultimate sacrifice at any time, should Mist demand it of him. Mist had succeed so far with his training as to make his heart hard to the outside world, however they had never been able to remove the soft spot in his heart for his sister nor his hatred for Mist. The problem was, Mist was well aware of both of his 'faults', and had used one to compensate for the other. Rikuto would do anything to protect his sister, even kill innocent people. He wouldn't like it, but he would obey his orders.

Or at least, he thought he would. But then Chacha's second coming had popped up before him. It wasn't that the girl looked anything like his sister, but her age, her birthday, her likes and dislikes, her habits, her personality, the way she always wanted to help him, the way she hid her pain, the way she laughed…on more than one occasion he had found himself wanting to cry as he looked down at the girl he had originally approached for the sake of information and saw, not a stranger, but Chacha. If he failed, she was supposed to die along with everyone else that might have been involved with them. The thing was, he couldn't bring himself to do it. It would be too much like killing his sister.

That was why, even though it was almost like disobeying his orders, he was down here preparing this special cup of tea. The powder, for once, was not a poison, though it was a drug. He had to be careful not to add too much—she was so small that too large of a dose might harm her—but he also had to make sure the concoction would be strong enough that she would sleep the entire night away no matter what happened around her. He couldn't have her waking up when he moved her to safety. If the mission was a success he would return her to her bed and she would never be aware that anything had happened. If it was a failure…well, at least she would survive.

Having finished, Rikuto made his way back upstairs to wait for his sister's analog to come up for bed. Normally she would have lessons at this time, but thankfully her sister had left earlier that day. If only she had taken her sister with her…

Rikuto blinked in surprise as he reached the top of the stairs only to find a small girl, huddled with her head down, sitting against one wall…and for a moment he saw Chacha waiting for him. Biting his cheek, Rikuto forced all of his anxiety and—for lack of better words—familial love away. Slipping on his proverbial mask—although the smile that replaced his worry was undeniably genuine—Rikuto silently approached his sister's analog.

Before she could call him by the nickname Chacha had given him—the one that combined their names— he called out her name in greeting and handed her the mug in such a way that she would undoubtedly drink it. Her first choice in conversation tore at him—he had had a similar conversation just before he'd parted with Chacha. The first chance he got he changed the subject, and then worked hard to keep it changed as he waited for the drugs to kick in.

When finally he picked her up, the girl's distant blue eyes were flickering open and closed. She was almost asleep. The last time she opened her eyes they almost appeared green—but no, that couldn't be…he was simply overlapping her with his sister…and yet…

As he slipped into her room to get her a blanket Rikuto couldn't stop himself from delivering, once again, nearly the same exact warning he'd given his sister before he departed for Suna.

"You'll see… even if you call them friend…even if they save your life… in the end…all ninja are monsters…_all of us_…"

* * *

_At first Sakura thought she was waking up, her eyes flicking open and closed lazily as she took in her hazy surrounding. Then she realized she had to be dreaming, because she was staring up at a blurry full moon. Somewhere in the depths of her mind she knew that wasn't right, though she couldn't think of why. Not having the energy to dwell on it, Sakura turned her mind to her surroundings. What she saw made her gasp. Sitting up slowly, almost afraid to breath, Sakura took in the beauty all around her. There were flowers everywhere, and they almost seemed to glow in the moonlight._

"_Pretty…" Sakura whispered—though her voice sounded strange to her ears, she ignored it, entranced by the flowers. Her hand was moving to touch the flowers before Sakura understood that, as tightly wrapped in a cocoon as she was, it was impossible. The fact that she was in a cocoon didn't raise even the slightest question in Sakura's mind—this was a dream, and there were weirder things that could happen. Slowly Sakura wiggled her way out of her cocoon. "I'm a butterfly." The little girl whispered with a small smile when she finally escaped that which was holding her back, "and now to the pretty flowers."_

_Sakura stood on unsteady legs, stumbled a few feet, and then collapsed so that she was now face-to-face with one of the flowers. If this had been reality, her knees would probably be hurting about now from the fall, but she felt nothing. Even her wonderment with the beautiful flowers seemed muted somehow. Up close now—why did a few feet feel like a hundred yards—Sakura understood that she was not surrounded by flowers, per se, but rather by flowering bushes. The pink haired child was just beginning to think that perhaps she recognized these bushes when something dark from the corner of her eye pushed the thought out of her mind. _

_Turning lazily to find the 'dark' thing, Sakura's gaze landed upon what she could only call a moth crossing the path of the blurry full moon…the thing was, it was larger than any moth she'd ever seen. Blinking in confusion as she continued to watch the fluttering creature, Sakura couldn't help but feel weird. She thought she understood why after the moth flew to its third flower. She was just wondering why the moth had fingers when something happening above her caught her attention yet again. This time Sakura didn't have to turn to look to see what was passing the moon this time. It was a pair of clouds that strangely looked like a pair of crossed chopsticks and a bowl of ramen. As she watched, the bowl of ramen slowly inched its way towards the chopsticks. Sakura might have watched until they met to see if there were any cloud-noodles willing to leave the bowl, but then the other things she was watching in this dream took her full attention. The fingered-moth had been heading for another flower when it swerved and nearly hit her instead._

_Looking closer at the flower it had been heading for, Sakura saw that there was another strange creature already on it. Unlike the fingered-moth, which she was beginning to think wasn't a moth after all, Sakura instantly recognized the newcomer. It was a scorpion. Thanks to Aniki, she had read up on scorpions and now knew that how dangerous they were depended on the size of their pincers. The smaller the pincers, the more poisonous. Rubbing her blurry eyes, Sakura tried to see for herself what size the scorpion was, but by the time she was looking again, the scorpion had shifted so that its tail was to her and its head and pincers were hidden inside the flower. Knowing this was a dream, Sakura thought nothing of reaching her hand inside, grabbing the scorpion just below the head of its tail, and pulling it out where she could see it._

_The scorpion dangled from her fingers, waving its pinchers around as if to say, 'there, you see them, now let me go'. What felt like many minutes passed before Sakura's slow mind decided that she would consider these medium-sized pincers. That mystery solved, Sakura set the scorpion down, her thoughts floating to Aniki and what he might say if he were here right now to see the scorpion. For some reason she felt like he would be calling her an idiot right now…but for the life of her, Sakura couldn't get her foggy mind to come up with any reason why that might be as her fingers released the scorpion back into the wild. Fire was searing through her blood before she knew what happened. _

Sakura was screaming as the fog cleared from her mind—she knew she was awake now—but something was still wrong. Her eyes squeezed shut, but even so she could still see the scorpion…and she could still feel the fire. The scorpion scuttled towards her, and in fear and with the sudden realization that it was about to sting her again, Sakura shot to her feet and stomped on it. Again and again Sakura stepped on it, irrationally fearing that it was going to pop back up again to hurt her. Her feet didn't stop pounding the ground until the pain in her hand became so bad that she was finding it hard to breath. She might have continued anyhow if not for one important piece of information smacking her in the face. She should have realized it earlier, but only now with her blood on fire did Sakura realize that none of this had been a dream.

The pain in her hand wasn't leaving Sakura enough room in her mind to wonder how she had gotten out here—wherever here was—or how she was supposed to get back home. Instead, the only thing that she could think about was how much pain she was in and how she wanted it to end. The only person she could think of to help with something caused by a scorpion was Aniki. Crying and clutching her burning hand to her chest, Sakura looked around as if she expected to see Aniki nearby, just waiting for her to come get him. Of course, the bushy place was silent, and there was no Aniki staring at her, but there was the moon. And it was in the instance during which she paid attention to the moon that one set of her Eyes had been looking at all along that she came to understand the real reason she had been feeling weird this entire time. It hadn't been because of the fog in her mind or because of the fingers on the thing that must not really be a moth, but rather because—perhaps all along—her Eyes had been activated.

Sakura's first reaction to this realization was to throw her hands through the motions required to See the present in order to find Aniki. She only made it through half before her hand spasmed, jerking wildly against her will and interrupting the attempt. Thinking of how this might be the only way she could find Aniki and get help for her throbbing hand, Sakura swung both of her hands through the air in anger. She immediately regretted it as her hand spasmed again.

Sakura sank to her knees and was crying in pain and desperation when she realized she was seeing more than one thing at a time. In front of her was the red journal laying sprawled half on the ground and half on a wad of blankets—the cocoon she realized a little too late for it to matter. At the same time she was also seeing a small black clad figure sneaking out from a kitchen window at the inn—she knew they were wearing black in the inky darkness because, for some reason, the lights were flickering inside the kitchen. If not for the third thing she could see, she would have been extremely curious as to who the person in black was and why the kitchen light was on when no other lights were. Instead of focusing on the extremely abnormal occurrence at the inn, though, Sakura chose to turn all of her attention to the creepy graveyard scene that was all too familiar to her.

There was the bunny shaped cloud, hovering adjacent to the full moon (or was it covering a part of it? She couldn't tell), and there was the boy standing before the grave. Everything was from a different angle, though…and from this new angle she Saw something new and yet still familiar. In front of the grave she recognized as being from the graveyard on the opposite side of town stood the boy. For a terrible moment Sakura thought the boy was actually Katsu, but then, as if she blinked, Katsu winked out of view and the real boy's face swam into view: Aniki's face.

Sakura gasped, and for a moment the picture wavered, but then, as she focused on it again, willing it not to disappear, the picture refocused. Only then did she realize that she couldn't see any Kunai in the air. That had to be a good sign. She had to get to Aniki before his attacker did. She had to warn him.

Sakura stumbled out of the bushes that ringed her, hardly paying attention to where she was going. At first she tried to focus only on Aniki, afraid that if she lost sight of him now she would never find him again, but after she ran into a boulder, she realized that might not be the best idea. It wasn't long before she had figured out the trick to paying partial attention to two things at once. Her arm was still burning and she still couldn't seem to walk completely straight, but as soon as she was free of the bush, she recognized where she was and felt relieved. Although she had no clue how she had gotten out here, for once she knew exactly where she was. She was near the place where she had first spotted her father, near the place where she had fallen into her first bush, and she knew from her earlier Seeing experience that the graveyard was not far. Not so much forgetting her own pain as choosing to ignore it, Sakura made her way to where she hoped to find Aniki still alive and uninjured.

* * *

The red-haired preteen stood before a grave, looking at his reflection in the moonlight. The eyes that looked back at him were not his own, however, but that obnoxious prick, his so-called rival's dark green eyes. The grave belonged to Katsu's late sister and tonight was the anniversary of the girl's death. If his calculations were correct, tonight something would happen. Everyone knew that Katsu visited his sister alone on this evening. After searching in the bush that brat had stumbled upon he had been able to determine what had been sharp enough to slice her ankle. What he had found was a hidden trove of non-descript weapons—which were impossible to trace anywhere—but he had also found nearby a tiny bottle of an extremely rare and volatile poison he recognized as being native to Kiri. With this later find, it became fairly clear to the red head what was going on. Nearly three months ago Katsu had stolen an artifact from Mist and in the process had left behind a number of dead. It wasn't surprising that Mist would send assassins after him in revenge. It had only taken half a day to convince Katsu that he wasn't just dreaming—the fool—and that he should forgo his visit until after the assassins were dealt with.

Darker eyebrows than the red-head's own narrowed into what could be taken as a pained expression, but was really just his way of expressing how annoyed he was. How long were the pathetic assassins going to make him wait? He had left everything he had found in the bushes exactly as he had found them, so they shouldn't have any idea that they had already been found out. If they didn't make an appearance soon Katsu was going to try to kill him for interrupting his yearly pity-fest, regardless of the fact that there was blatant evidence of assassins in the area—not that the Kazekage would let him. It had only taken a few minutes to convince the Kazekage that Katsu was the most likely target and a few hours to convince him that it would be better to send a decoy-Katsu out to visit the grave rather than actively searching for them and possibly chasing them away. If that happened, there was no telling what their next move might be. This way they could—and had—set a trap.

Too bad when he had suggested the decoy idea he hadn't thought that the Kazekage would order him to be the decoy, not when the man was still mistrustful of him since he had disobeyed orders months ago. But here he was, only two worthless Jonin watching his back. The single good thing he had to say about those bumbling idiots were that they were hidden well enough that even he, who knew where they were, could barely detect them. The Kaekage had moved Katsu somewhere 'for his own safety', though he wouldn't say where, and by this time the man would likely be back in his tower doing paperwork like usual, leaving the dangerous work to a Chunin.

Not for the first time, the annoyed red-head felt as if this stupid village was treating him like one of the puppets their village was famous for. To them was he only a tool, useful, valuable, but ultimately expendable? True, he was entirely capable of taking care of himself, but then, so was Katsu—and although he hadn't mentioned it, he knew from the expression the Kazekage had made when he told him about the assassins that the man had been aware that if the target wasn't Katsu, it would have to be himself. When he had disobeyed orders, it was because letting the Mist ninja that had been tracking him live would have invited more than just a few assassins to Suna.

And yet, once again, here he was standing before a grave disguised as Katsu, acting as bait for an unknown number of assassins with only two newly-fledged Jonin as backup—Jonin who would be more of a hindrance than a help if they actually came to 'assist' him. Perhaps it was a good thing after all that their orders (not that he was supposed to know their orders) were to only act if it looked like a known assassin was going to escape. Once the assassins attacked, the red head had little intention of letting one live, so hopefully those buffoons wouldn't get in his way.

The red head's thoughts about late assassins and useless backup were cut off when he heard feet running in his direction in an erratic pattern. Weary that this might be a distraction attempt by the assassins, the red head sought out a Chakra signature without appearing to do so—Katsu at his most pathetic was dead to the world, after all, and he had appearances to keep up. At first he didn't recognize the flaring Chakra that he found—its strength was fluctuating just as much as the sound of the person's footsteps were—but after a few heartbeats he knew exactly who was coming this way.

Repressing a groan, the red head leaned his head against the gravestone. Let any watching assassins think Katsu was wallowing in pain—it was a true enough depiction of how Katsu would be acting if he were actually here. If he was lucky, the brat would pass him by. Right now he was not Aniki—although the part of him that was Aniki was demanding why the brat was up at this hour of the night—he had to keep up appearances as Katsu. He could not acknowledge her presence if she came up to him asking if he was alright (she seemed like the kind of idiot who would wander up to a stranger and ask just that, after all). If she pestered him, he would have to hurt her—the Aniki part of him cringed at the idea, but the part of him that was truly Sasori, the cold blooded ninja, knew that was weakness—Katsu would lash out at her under these circumstances, and thus so would he. Not to mention, it might be the only way to send her away. He couldn't let a civilian get caught up in an ambush.

It wasn't long before he heard huffing and puffing as well as gasping that might have been sobs. The red head feigned deafness as he straightened his posture and continued staring at the gravestone. Perhaps if he didn't look overly sad she would ignore him. No, he would probably be better off hoping she never saw him. Although he had no clue why she was out here at this time of night, there was a ninety percent chance that she was lost. If she was lost, and she caught sight of a person, there was a seventy-nine percent chance she would ask them for help, and a ninety-eight percent chance that she would keep asking for help until she was either helped or harmed. Firsthand experience had taught him this.

A twig snapping somewhere behind him made the red head cease his calculating as he forced himself not to tense up. Katsu wouldn't notice that either. Sending his senses towards where the sound had come from, the red head caught the tail end of what was likely a slipped Chakra signature. It was gone now, but the red head knew the ninja who had slipped up was still out there. Either it was the assassin—which he doubted from how weak the signature had been—or some other ninja—likely a Genin—was out there watching him. He could come up with over a dozen reasons why a Genin might be out there, but none of them would have been enough to break Katsu from his pity-fest.

A pain-filled voice screaming out 'Aniki', however, was enough to turn anyone's head—or at least, that's how the red head tried to explain to himself why he broke character to look at the ball of pink coming into view. He instantly regretted looking—not because Katsu wouldn't (there actually was a twenty-five percent chance he would) but rather because now that he had turned towards her it would be almost impossible to ignore her. The first thing he noticed as she crested a nearby hill and came into view was that her eyes were doing strange things again. That particular fact didn't faze him—the brat's eyes were often doing strange things, seemingly without her even noticing—nor was he much surprised by the way she was cradling one arm to her chest—she was always getting herself injured. No the thing that froze him in place was the way her pupils were glued to his as she stumbled down the hill. She had called out 'Aniki'.

Reminded of the fact that he could not be Aniki just then, the red heard turned back to the grave as if, now that he had seen what was causing the disturbance, he could care less about some strange girl screaming out for her big brother. After all, Katsu's little sister was laying right before him. He didn't care about the blob of pink nearing him. He didn't care that she was crying. When she tripped and fell, he didn't care. When she got back up and continued stumbling forward, he didn't feel proud or relieved. He did not care to wonder if the pink haired child had once again mistaken Katsu's red hair for Aniki's as she had earlier. No, he could not care about any of this. He was Sasori, ninja of Suna, here on a mission to rat out assassins. No, he wasn't even Sasori at the moment. He had to be Katsu. He could not be Aniki on a night like this. And there lay his dilemma, because around the brat he couldn't help but fall into the big-brother role. Although he would never admit it out loud, he enjoyed being Aniki.

If only the assassins would hurry up and show themselves so he could kill them and be done with this irritating act. It was bad enough that he was always being compared to the prick; he didn't want to pretend to be Katsu any longer than necessary.

The brat was screaming out for her big brother again, much closer this time. So close that he could hear when she stumbled to a halt. Now that she was so near, the red head couldn't help but glance at her from the corner of his eye as he attempted to keep up his Katsu act. She was rubbing her eyes and then blinking her eyes in confusion. He knew she could see Chakra, but he had never thought about how that might relate to the ninja arts beyond making her want to learn how to make Chakra strings. Now he was interested. The girl continued to look confused—she was squinting, as if that could clarify her vision. What did she see? For a moment he allowed himself to focus all his attention on her moving lips. Although she was mumbling too quietly to hear, he read the question on her lips. From the sounds of it, she couldn't determine which was the real him—'Aniki' or 'Meany Head'. Clearly the brat could see more than he thought she could, if she could even partially see through his disguise.

The snicker was halfway formed before Ani—no, Sasori—turned it into what sounded more like a sniffle. He was just reminding himself yet again that he could not be himself just then…when many things happened all at once:

The brat screamed, apparently having decided that he _was_ Aniki.

She hurried towards him, one hand flailing out as if she was close enough to grab him even though she wasn't.

Sasori realized that in his moment of distraction the assassins had made their move.

* * *

Dun, Dun, Duuuun! I know, it's a cliff hanger, but I couldn't help it. Originally there was going to be more to this chapter, but things were getting too long so I had to cut it, and it was either stopping here or not getting to Sasori's part at all. The good news is that this means that part of the next chapter is already written. Look forward to Sasori vs. Assassins next time! So, what is everyone's reaction to Cha'ri/Rikuto's secret(s)? Did I blindside anyone? Did anyone have their suspicions confirmed? Is anyone just plain confused? Please tell me, I would like to know.

I apologize for the late update, but my computer had a virus so I had to turn it over to the computer doctors. They said it should only take three or four days...and let's just say it took much more than that. On top of that, I had injured my hand (the injury came before the virus but after I finished this chapter), so little writing occurred/is occuring due to necessity rather than desire (or lack there of). Although my hand is getting better, it's still not a hundred percent, so I'm trying to keep typing to a minimum. The good news is, as mentioned above, I've got part of the next chapter already written...the bad news is that I don't know how much longer it will take my hand to fully heal and school will be starting again really soon...and work is giving me too many hours because a lot of people are taking last-minute vacations...

That said, I will try to update in about two weeks like usual, but I can't promise. If I do get another chapter posted in good time it will likely be on the 5th of September.

Just a reminder, I do have a recording of my future Sakura/Sasori fic up on SoundCloud if anyone wants to go listen to it. Send me a PM with what you think about it.

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome to view the blooming bushes in all of their beautiful delightfulness. We'll leave the scorpions to the flamers, though. Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: Guest/BriEva (Yes, Cha'ri hates ninja, and hopefully this chapter helps explain all about 'her' creepiness (If you look back through our past PMs, you might notice I was careful not to address Cha'ri by pronouns). Yes, both Ryu and Shin are adorable...personally I sometimes feel like I'm picking on Shin, since we all know his crush is futile. Yes, Sakura's time is nearing its end. As to your Hoshi question, I'm still debating on whether or not I'm going to write something to do with them into the story, so you'll just have to wait to see. As to a certain brunet's actions...well, one happened, and one didn't...so I hope that can at least somewhat appease you), Emilise284 (thanks for feeling my pain about the reviewing-issue. It's fine if you're not an in-depth analysis sort of person, I just like hearing what people think and I like knowing people care enough to review), **Jelly-Me** (Well, you were at least partially right about Cha'ri, so great job! Shin surely had Ryu come because he didn't trust Cha'ri, but neither of them expected the truth...and thanks to Cha'ri's outburst, I don't think Ryu got much Intel out of the brunet. As to the 'pet murderer' thing, that's actually a turn-of-phrase that Sakura didn't fully understand. Basically Cha'ri was calling Ryu a kept murder...someone who murders at the orders of another...not an actual pet murderer. As to brunet, there is more than one way to correctly spell the word, just like with 'grey/gray' and 'blond/blonde', thank you for your input, though. If you spot anything else you think is wrong, please point it out), ZellaLaBella (How did Sakura remind you of Naruto? If anyone would have reminded you of Naruto, I would have thought it would be Keiko, since I sort of based her off of him), & Geniusly-Unique (You were 100% right about the drugging thing...nope, you weren't pointlessly paranoid...you were very rightly paranoid. And, yeah, the sweetening was likely covering up something...either that or the 'sweetening' was the 'something'. Cha'ri is thirteen...and although your 'father theory' was 'more likely', it turns out your 'monster theory' was the one that was actually correct. What did you think about Cha'ri actually being a guy?) for reviewing!


	43. Sasori vs Assassins

Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own!

Chapter 43: Sasori vs. Assassins (vs. Aniki)

…_many things happened all at once:_

_The brat screamed, apparently having decided that he _was_ Aniki. _

_She hurried towards him, one hand flailing out as if she was close enough to grab him even though she wasn't. _

_Sasori realized that in his moment of distraction the assassins had made their move._

The red head could all but feel the blades flying towards his back. He wasn't worried about being poisoned—he had injected himself with the antidote before he even came here, since in order to work it had to be in one's system before contracting the poison—however, for a split second he couldn't stop himself from being the big brother. For a moment Aniki feared for the brat's safety more than his own, or even his mission's success. Then Sasori's cooler mind took over, prepared to calculate trajectories so that he could track the weapons back to their owners before the assassins got a chance to throw any more. Worrying wouldn't do him any good.

Sasori was turning, pulling a kunai from where it had been strapped to his inner arm. His intent was to knock the oncoming kunai aside. If the brat hadn't been there he would have simply dodge, but he couldn't risk her getting even a scratch, not when she hadn't been inoculated against the poison like he had been…and there was also the possibility that the enemy had more than one poison at their disposal. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement, but it was coming from the brat's direction, so he ignored it. Knowing her, she had most likely tripped—which was probably a good thing since it would bring her lower to the ground and thus make her less of a target.

By the time Sasori was fully facing the kunai that was less than a foot from his head, he could sense the brat's Chakra spiking. There were ten more kunai behind the first one, staggered and angled such that he knew there were at least two assassins, positioned twenty feet apart, one behind the largest memorial stone and another in one of the trees. From the perfect timing and staggering of the projectiles he knew that these assassins had worked together often before, and from how he still couldn't sense them even though he knew where they were he knew that they were likely too much for his Jonin 'backup'. It was a good thing he never planned on their helping him.

Sasori's kunai was in position and the assassin's kunai was six inches away from his face, less than an inch from his kunai, when the reason for the brat's Chakra spike became instantly clear. The assassin's kunai bounced away while the red head's Kunai came to a sudden halt, however there was no metallic clang because both kunai had hit an invisible wall. Although he hadn't _known_ the brat could make such an invisible barrier, he had previously deduced it as a possibility after he had rescued her from Kato Panyamoto when he realized that the baker's hand couldn't be removed from its position on the knife, nor the knife from the wall. Now he knew for sure that the brat had manipulated the area around man and knife, not the man or the knife themselves. How she did it didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was that there was now something shielding the girl from the kunai so he didn't have to stick around.

Before Sasori's opponents realized that he was not responsible for the deflected kunai, he had vanished. The slim man behind the memorial stone was dead before he could blink. The one in the trees, however, was a different story. Perhaps the tree assassin had determined earlier that he would go after the one whose exact position he was assured of, because even as the stone assassin gurgled his last breath shuriken barraged him, slicing up the red head as well as the now-deceased assassin he was using as a meat shield. Shifting the body to better protect himself with one hand, his free hand threw Chakra strings to a nearby bush, where one of his puppets awaited him. If he'd known further ahead of time about the attack he might have been able to make a Katsu puppet to act as the decoy, but he hadn't. The stinging cuts on his extremities reminded Sasori why he hated making himself a target. He much preferred spilling other people's blood to spilling his own.

From the slight cold tingle spreading from the cuts, Sasori knew the shuriken had indeed been coated with the poison he had found earlier. If he hadn't taken precautions, the poison would now be speeding to his heart and lungs, binding to every enzyme it encountered that was responsible for oxygen exchange, rendering them useless. Depending on the dose, asphyxiation would occur within four to ten minutes. The reason he had to take the antidote ahead of time was because it bound to many of those same enzymes, only in such a way that their conformations were still viable for oxygen exchange while simultaneously being made inviable for the poison. The tingling was because the antidote didn't affect all of the same enzymes, and so he would still lose some of his oxygen exchange capabilities, but nowhere near enough to be life threatening.

With his puppet and the meat shield he didn't even have to chase after the assassin. He'd try to capture this one alive—the Kazekage had stressed the importance of that fact, and had even ordered his 'backup' to interfere if he 'forgot' (once again, not that he was supposed to know their orders, but he always liked to know what his superiors were planning for him behind his back)—but if things got out of hand and the assassin died, he wouldn't shed any tears.

Sasori had hoped that the assassin would keep attacking him so that his puppet could sneak up behind the person and kill them while they were focused on him, but when a branch moved just slightly further from him than where the attacks had come from, he understood that the assassins had also had a contingency plan—namely escape—or it was possible that they planned all along to poison their target and then make their escape while their target was busy suffocating to death. Later he'd have to find out if Katsu had killed any of the Mist ninja through asphyxiation, because if so, this attack might be more personal than political. If it was personal, it would certainly explain why these assassins had chosen a poison that was slow to act—most assassins preferred instant killers like ricin or cyanide. Usually only poison enthusiasts and grudge holders chose slow acting poisons—and any poison enthusiast would know better than to use only one type of poison when going in for an assassination; it was too easy to counter.

His puppet alone had weapons coated in five different poisons—of which none were currently deadly since he knew he had to at least pretend that he cared about his no-kill orders. His current choice in poisons would merely incapacitate the assassin—that is, of course, if his puppet could land a hit. Thirty seconds passed before his puppet successfully contacted the assassin, throwing the large man out of the tree. The assassin sadly wasn't bleeding, nor was he paralyzed, so he must have taken the blow with the kunai he was holding. Another thirty seconds and Sasori was becoming quite irritated with the maneuverability of the big lout. He should have been paralyzed if not unconscious by now. Instead, not only was he dodging all of the puppeteer's attacks, but he was also still managing to throw weapons at Sasori. Although these all ended up in his meat shield, these attacks successfully kept Sasori from being able to move towards the assassin, effectively meaning that they were at an impasse.

The man probably thought otherwise. From the way the battle was being unnecessarily drawn out, Sasori had to assume that the man was still under the assumption that the poison was killing him, and that thus the assassin only had to hold him off long enough for the poison to do its job. Not only was the man lazy, but he was wearing on Sasori's patience. They were wasting time. Perhaps he should reenter the fight despite the annoying tingling sensation now permeating his entire body. It wouldn't take long for him to become out of breath, but there was a high likelihood that by the time the poison left him winded the assassin would be dealt with. It would be much more time efficient.

Or at least, it would have been if the assassin hadn't determined what Sasori was going to do just as he began to do it. This time when the man threw a poisoned kunai, it was not at the red head or his abandoned meat shield. For a millisecond Sasori's mind went blank, unable to determine a reason for the assassin to throw a kunai the wrong way when his enemy was standing only yards away from him. It was the part of his mind that was Aniki that informed him of one terrible reason for the assassin to ignore his target. Two more milliseconds passed as Sasori debated with himself which was more important: capturing the assassin, or saving the brat's life.

Sasori was not a bleeding heart, nor was he a thoughtless puppet, so the decision wasn't as easy as it might first seem.

Sasori knew very well what the Kazekage would say. He knew very well that he was supposed to be acting on his orders. He knew very well that logically his moving to save the brat would hinder his mission's success and that the assassins should have a true cure to the poison on them—it was one of the first things anybody handling poisons learned if they wanted to live—so if he finished this quickly he would be able to obtain the hard-to-make cure in time to save the brat. He did not doubt that if he was willing to get fairly injured that he'd be able to end this battle in less than two minutes. For safety's sake that would leave him one minute rather than two to find the true cure and administer it. He also was aware that his grandmother would have found out about his mission by now and was likely keeping close just in case. If he let his Chakra flare she would come—not so much out of worry for him as because she would be curious—but the point is she would come and be able to help the brat as well patch him back up.

At the same time, though, Aniki knew that the brat trusted him—that wasn't something he was accustomed to. Not even his grandmother fully trusted him, and supposedly being family predisposed people to trusting each other. The brat was a Hoshi, which also supposedly should predispose her to _not_ trusting ninja, but even after he had literally tried to push her away she had still stuck to him. Truthful, he found her clingy nature annoying, but unlike all of his so-called supporters who clung to him in hopes of making him Kazekage for their own personal gain while claiming it was all for him, she didn't approach him with hidden motives. He hated duplicity, and although she could drive him insane by following him like a puppy or clinging to his chest while crying, if she wanted something from him, she was always forthcoming about it. She even tried to do things for him out of the naïve goodness of her heart—stupid things like returning a shuriken when she had no clue how to handle one properly.

In some ways this annoyed him even more than the following and the clinging, because although he could chose to lose her if he really wanted to, and often he avoided her impromptu hugs, he was at a loss for what to do when someone treated him like she did. She truly treated him as if he were the big brother she called him. He couldn't even call her treatment of him naïve since by now she was fully aware of what kind of person he was and yet she still sought him out whenever she needed help. It was stupid, immature, irritating, not to mention dangerous when she pulled dumb stunts like running into an ambush screaming. One of the things he hated most was how she always made him feel responsible for her bad luck. After all, how many times already had her life been in danger directly or indirectly because of him in the few months he had known her? Too many for it to be healthy for her, that was for sure. The brat should know better than to grow attached to shady characters like him.

Then again, if he was going to go along that line of thought…Sasori was all too aware that he too knew better than to grow attached to a helpless, annoying brat who wasn't even going to be sticking around for much longer. He shouldn't care—at least, not emotionally—if she died tonight. It would be annoying politically and his grandmother would certainly hassle him for causing another commotion so soon after his 'disobeying orders fiasco', but normally Sasori wouldn't even be contemplating taking unnecessary risks to his person for someone he wasn't being paid to protect. Strangely, it was this thought that made up the red head's mind. He now knew how he was going to face his current dilemma.

Sasori decided that if things were already to the point where he was thinking uncharacteristically, then he might as well roll with it. It wouldn't be the first time he disappointed his so-called superiors with his choice in actions. Strangely, the thought of the brat even just possibly going through another near-death experience because of him bothered him a thousand times more than the ire he knew he would invoke in his superiors should he kill all of the assassins. If he needed any more incentive, Sasori would only have to remember that even though he knew better than to care for the brat, he had already made peace with the fact that he had passed the point where it mattered to him. Sasori actually preferred being the brat's Aniki to being Suna's puppet.

Aniki snapped into action. His kunai was flying towards the assassin's kunai. His puppet was assaulting the assassin. His eyes briefly shifted to the brat—she was curled up on the ground, her Chakra much lower than before. It looked as if she might be cradling one arm, but he could see no blood so it was likely she hurt it when she fell to the ground if it wasn't from whatever injury she had had before running towards the ambush. In that brief moment when his eyes were on the brat, he heard a metallic clang. His head swiveled automatically to find the cause even though he knew it was likely the assassin and his puppet clashing since his kunai should not have met the assassin's for another half second.

It was because the red head knew this that he was taken by surprise. His kunai was still arcing through the air, now passing the point where it should have collided with the assassin's kunai. The assassin's kunai was now flipping end over end in a different trajectory, having clearly been hit by something—something he currently didn't have the time to seek out. Sasori could come up with a number of different possible reasons for this to have happened, the most likely of which being that one of his backup had decided that a civilian death was not a good outcome. Whatever the reason, the brat was safe. Now he had an assassin to incapacitate.

The large assassin was too busy fending off the puppet to realize that that his target had changed directions until it was almost too late. He jumped back just in time to save his neck, though not in time to save his skin. The tiniest of cuts marked the man's thick neck. Sasori didn't care that the smirk now evident on his face was breaking from character—the man clearly thought he was still facing Katsu despite the fact that Katsu never used puppets, because he seemed unconcerned by the tiny cut. If these had been normal circumstances, the man would have been as good as dead by now. Instead, he had to wait another thirty or so seconds for the paralysis to set in.

After ten second Sasori had already obtained three new cuts and now he was breathing hard while the assassin now sported an additional cut in his side courtesy of the puppet's sword. After five more seconds the large man's face visibly whitened, even under the cloth he wore over most of his face. There were two possible reasons for this. The first was that the assassin had finally realized he was poisoned…the second was that the assassin had realized that Sasori wasn't asphyxiating. The way the man was now grasping at his chest while glaring at Sasori, clearly confused, the red head decided that the assassin had actually noticed both in the same instant. When the man opened his mouth, the red head half expected the man to curse him or his village with what he thought would be his final breath (if Sasori had used a stronger dose of the poison, it would have been).

The assassin's voice rasped in what could only be called a weak bellow, "Scatter and destroy!"

For a moment Sasori thought this was some last ditch attempt to distract him, but then a twig snapped behind him, and the red head cursed himself as he tried to turn in time to catch whatever attack was headed his way. He had miscalculated thinking that there were only two assassins.

Only there was no one behind him. There was, however, a weak presence moving out of his range of detection—however it couldn't be anyone higher than Genin with that Chakra signature. He'd catch the third assassin—if that's who the person was—after he finished with this one. That was, of course, assuming that his backup didn't catch the person first. It was what they were here for, after all—to catch anyone who escaped him. Sasori turned back around just in time to stop the assassin from sliding a dagger across his own neck with shaky hands. Two seconds later the full effects of the paralysis poison kicked in and the man slumped to the ground.

Breathing hard thanks to his own poisoned state, Sasori moved the assassin so that he was lying on his back before the red head started searching the man for a hidden vial of the true antidote. Even though Sasori's makeshift antidote had saved his life, he would prefer not to be stuck breathless like this for the next few weeks if he could help it. There was none. For a moment Sasori reeled—how was it possible that an assassin would use a poison without carrying the antidote? Then the red head remembered the first man he had killed. Getting up, Sasori abandoned the paralyzed man for the dead one. A quick search turned up yet another negative. This was perplexing. The fight had shown him that these were not novice assassins, so why were they not carrying an antidote? Had they used a similar makeshift antidote so that they wouldn't have to worry about searching for the antidote in the middle of a fight should they accidently cut themselves? Or was it worse than that? Was it possible that—

Sasori's thoughts were cut off when two familiar Chakra signals joined him. Looking up from the dead assassin, the red head found the two useless Jonin standing over the paralyzed man. One man was mumbling something about being grateful that 'the kid' hadn't 'botched things up after all'. For a moment Sasori was dumbfounded—and then he was exasperated with himself for feeling that way. Of course the idiots hadn't noticed the third assassin escaping—even he had overlooked such a weak Chakra signal.

The red head was angry enough with both himself and his 'backup' that, had he had the breath for it, he would have run up to the imbeciles, hit them, and then sent them running after the third assassin. Instead he glided toward them, silently seething. He had just decided he still had enough breath to berate them after all when his foot hit something that made him pause. Glancing down, Sasori found something he could not immediately explain. It was a senbon. Neither he nor the assassins had used senbon…and he knew for a fact that these two idiots were the kind who thought senbon were only useful for medics, which they were not.

Wearily, Sasori bent down to pick up the senbon. From how it gleamed in the moonlight, he knew it was poisoned. From the slight floral scent he could make out, it was the same poison currently running through his system. Suddenly memories were flashing through his head: The kunai headed towards the brat, the metallic sound, the change in trajectory. He hadn't had time before, but now, with a moment to think, Sasori knew that in order for the kunai to have changed trajectory like that, it must have been hit by something thrown from about four feet from where the brat had been laying…and if it hadn't hit the kunai, it would have hit him. Sasori's logical mind was busy determining what this said about the third assassin when his logical thoughts were cut off by another thought, this one emotionally driven. Hadn't the brat been holding one arm? There had been no blood, no kunai had reached her, and he had figured she had hurt herself at some point in time—but that was before the red head knew of the third assassin.

He was a fool.

Aniki's head shot up and his eyes immediately sought out a splotch of pink. Thankfully, he found her right where she had been last he'd looked. Worryingly, she was also in the same curled up position. Now that he was looking for it, he could hear her sobbing—or was she gasping? Without thought—he couldn't bring himself to think about what her gasping could mean—he rushed to the brat's side. Aniki was horrified by what he found…although the part of him that remained the logical Sasori commented that he couldn't possibly know the brat well enough to feel horror; but that's what he felt, possible or not, because there were two senbon lodged in the arm the little girl was clutching.

He was worse than a fool.

How long had she been like this? Kneeling down and reaching out Aniki first found the girls pulse—it was easy to find, which was a slight relief. As he removed his hand from her neck, the girl's eyes fluttered open. They had returned to their true green color…which told him plenty about her current state of health. Only once before had he seen her lose control of what had to be her Hoshi Kekkei Genkai, and that had been when she was near death. Tears leaked out of the child's eyes as she looked up at him. Her whole body trembled, and yet she didn't move, not even to get a better look at him. It took less than a second for the red head to realize what that likely meant. After all, last time he had saved her she had had broken ribs and yet she had still thrown herself at him as soon as she recognized him.

Acting quickly, Aniki pulled the girl upright against him with one hand while his other hand plucked the senbon from her arm. They hadn't hit anything critical—which was hard to believe considering how close the assassin must have been to her —and although the removal left the girl bleeding, it was nothing serious. The senbon hadn't even been embedded very deep—another oddity. It only took a glance for Aniki to recognize exactly what poison covered the first of the two senbon. To his relief, it was not the asphyxiation poison but rather another poison, one that caused paralysis, which would only cause asphyxiation if it was too concentrated. The bad news was that it had likely been made with the thought of bringing down Katsu—a guy much larger than this petit girl. It was almost assuredly too concentrated to be safe…but there was finally a stroke of good luck, because this poison was the very same paralysis poison he had used on the second assassin. He had the antidote for this.

The vial was out of one of his secret pockets before he had finished that thought, and the antidote was speeding through her system only moments later. Only after he set the empty antidote vial aside did he glance at the second senbon. He froze the moment he realized that this sebon glimmered differently in the moonlight than the first. He breathed slightly easier when he noticed that it also didn't have the same floral scent as the asphyxiation poison, so that was one less thing he had to worry about. Still, what was it? The senbon smelled metallic—more so than the makeup of the senbon or blood could account for—and it also smelled familiar. There was additionally a second smell that was less familiar to the red head. Aniki's eyes widened when he comprehended what it was he was smelling. Although the composition was slightly different, this second senbon was effectively coated in the same makeshift antidote the red head had made to protect himself from asphyxiation.

But why would an assassin bother inoculating a witness against the poison that was flying about the battlefield? Another good question would by why the assassin hadn't bothered using the paralysis poison on him? It was understandable why they might have held back at first, but why after the second assassin was clearly losing the fight did he not interfere on his comrade's behalf. Even for Mist ninja, that seemed unusual. Although it was true they had weak links to each other, they didn't tend to let a partner die if they could do something about it. Although, thanks to Aniki's own stupidity, the third assassin had had plenty of opportunities to attack him from behind, they hadn't. They didn't protect their partner, they didn't try to take out their target, and they clearly kept antidotes to themselves— which likely meant the third assassin was the only one with real poison skills—

Just what was going on? Things were not adding up.

Aniki could feel the brat relaxing against him finally, which meant that the antidote was kicking in. She was no longer gasping—probably because her diaphragm could now fully expand—but now he could hear her whimpering. Great…just what he needed…tears. The only good thing he could see coming out of this night was that, if he was lucky, the brat would be so traumatized she would forget the promise she had forced upon him about his teaching her Chakra strings. It wasn't that she was a foreigner—because really he could care less about Suna's laws on that matter— or that he thought her incapable of learning…that wasn't why he wanted her to drop the promise. It was because he simply hated wasting his time, and he could see no bigger waste of time than sitting around waiting on the off chance that the girl might one day return with her end of the bargain completed. Not that he would ever sit around doing nothing anyhow, but it seemed wasteful to him none the less.

Sasori was brought back to himself when he heard the crunch of gravel underfoot of one of the Jonin. For a moment, he had forgotten that they were still there. Turning, he found one Jonin looking at him with poorly hidden disgust on his face and the live assassin slung over one shoulder. The other Jonin wasn't looking at him, but the brat, and his face showed a slight hint of worry.

The sour faced Jonin spoke through gritted teeth, "How long are you going to fawn over the stupid chit, boy? We are supposed to report in now that we have the assassin in custody."

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the man's borderline tone of insubordination. Technically it was the red head who was leading this mission. Before Sasori could respond, however, the other Jonin was speaking up, "Oh, stop that, you big lout. The captain is doing his job properly…or did you forget that we are supposed to avoid civilian casualties?!"

The sour faced Jonin scoffed, "That's no civilian, just foreign trash. We'd be better off with it gone." Of course, Sasori realized, he was anti-foreigner just like Katsu, who he clearly supported—and they wondered why Suna's economy was floundering when they treated merchants like trash.

"Fore shame!" squealed the second Jonin, "She's just a child—and in case you didn't notice she tried to help our honorable captain and—"

Sour Face interrupted, "And got in the way, nearly ruining the mission—and this so-called honorable captain is now endangering the mission by wasting time. We need to move now, and this _boy_ is too incapable to realize it. I don't know what your kind see in this guy. He can't even lead a mission properly, how do you think he could lead the village?"

It took all of Sasori's mental fortitude not to groan aloud. What had the Kazekage been thinking, sending two people who were plainly on opposite sides of the political battle sweeping the village? Sasori didn't know, but he did know that if he didn't do something soon, the two might actually start fighting. "Silence," Sasori commanded coldly, his patience used up. "You," he nodded towards Sour Face, "I am not wasting time; I am examining the evidence. If you are incapable of understanding that, then hold your tongue and question me when _you_ will not be wasting _my_ time. Take that man to the interrogators and then report to the Kazekage that you allowed one of the assassins to escape."

The man stuttered what was likely an argument or statement that he had done no such thing, but Sasori silenced him with a look. He was not in the mood to argue or explain. There would be time (and, sadly, need) for that later. After sending him a death glare, Sour Face left in a huff, taking the paralyzed assassin with him. Turning to face the eager-looking Jonin, Sasori wanted to sigh. He was much better at dealing with Katsu supporters than his own—something his grandmother, one of his most avid supporters, would never understand. Sasori was well versed in dealing with people who were rude or aggressive—he was simply rude and aggressive right back—but people like this Jonin, who practically worshiped the ground he walked on even though they didn't know the first thing about him…those kind of people were hard for him to handle. Now…how to deal with this one?

For once the answer was easy. "You," he intoned, trying to keep his disgust with the man from showing, "As I said, the third assassin escaped. They headed in that direction. See if you can find and capture them. Be careful, though, this one is likely well versed in poisons."

The man nodded eagerly, then asked what Sasori could only think was a stupid question, "How should we track him down, honorable captain?"

"It's after midnight," Sasori answered stiffly, "so if there's anyone out and about that isn't one of our own, capture them, even if they are children." Before the man could ask what could only be another stupid question, Sasori added, "Later I will catch up with you to determine if any of the people you have caught has the same Chakra signature that I felt, however I need to deal with this child right now, since she's been poisoned. Go!" The man left, not questioning his 'honorable captain'. The man was a fool. If it had been him—or even that prick Katsu—they would have questioned such orders. Why would he send the Jonin after someone he was unlikely to recognize when only Sasori had sensed the Chakra and so only Sasori could distinguish which he was? If the child's poison was the only issue, Sasori could have had the Jonin take the girl to the hospital.

The truth was, even though his breathing was back to normal now, Sasori knew he wouldn't be up to the chase. They had to capture that third assassin, because there were too many questions left unanswered, and so even sending the idiot was better than himself running around while poisoned. There was another reason he couldn't leave, a reason he was surprised the eager Jonin hadn't noticed, and that was how the little pink haired girl was now clinging to him with one arm, crying incoherently while still holding her injured arm near her body. Even if Sasori hadn't known her it would have been difficult to just abandon the girl to go chasing the assassin—the Kazekage would put him on another month's suspension if he found out he left a civilian child on a battlefield when there were still enemies on the loose.

The fact that the emotional side of Sasori felt responsible for the brat also might have played a part.

* * *

Ta-da! I hope you all liked Sasori's battle…as you can see, it was a little too long to keep it with the previous chapter. I hope that everyone could understand why Sasori kept going back and forth between referring to himself as Sasori or Aniki. It is supposed to represent how he views himself differently depending on whether he allows himself to act as the shinobi he should be or the big brother figure he would prefer to be…and you may or may not have noticed between this chapter and the last that, although he often thought of 'pretending to be Katsu' he never thought of himself _as_ Katsu, and that's because no part of him would ever want to be Katsu, not even if he was ordered to. On the other hand, he's all too happy to be Aniki…if it's not going to interfere with his battle or get him killed. From here on out I will have him refer to himself only as Sasori because, as the last line here suggests, he's finally accepted that the emotional 'Aniki' side of him is still him…even if no one else in Suna would ever believe it.

Although I made up the asphyxiation poison, I made it work in a biologically sound manner. For all I know, there might be a real poison that works in just that way. Likewise I made up the cure…which is equally biologically sound. I didn't mention any specific paralysis poison, but there are many that truly exist that may or may not be deadly depending on dose, so that was entirely based in fact.

I always find it amazing how easy it is to write from Sasori's point of view. He practically writes himself. The only reason I can even begin to think of for this is that he's the kind of character that is always thinking and analyzing, coming up with possibilities and plots…and I'm practically the same way. I don't have his personality, but I suppose that our way of thinking might be similar. Whichever way it is...he began writing himself into the next chapter as well...so look forward to more Sasori!

I'll try to update again in around two weeks (September 19th). As always, I can't promise, but I will do my absolute best to update then.

Well, also as always, I will welcome reviews and constructive criticisms with open arms and the offer of more chapters to come…flamers I'll just delete (what would they need with more chapters anyhow?)! Now, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: GaaraTheFifthKazekage (I think you sent your review the moment I put up the new chapter, so I didn't get your name on the list last time, so I'll say thanks here and now. As to your question...wait and see...it is a possibility...but the opposite is also possible), BriEva (Yup, you did. congrats! And there was a very good reason why he had to move her...and I don't mean just his reasoning either. Well, you were partially right about Sakura getting hit, but it wasn't a kunai, and it didn't help her bleed out. Sorry about the POV confusion; I tried to explain without outright saying, but I had to keep in character...and in the beginning he was trying to be Katsu—see first paragraph of the AN for more on that. I know, but I couldn't avoid the cliffy...you saw how long this was, and it had no breaks either...there just wasn't any other viable stopping point—not that I had all of this written when I cut off the last chapter, but I could see where it was going), ZellaLaBella (I'm glad I surprised you. I now see the Naruto comparison. Thank you for complementing my voice...when I listen to it I sound so much higher-pitched than how I sound to my own ear...but that's probably how I really sound. I also understand the dearth of Sakura/Sasori fics, especially good ones. You could say I'm doing my part to fix that), Geniusly-Unique (you and one other person did guess that, but it's one thing to guess, and another to know...not to mention that the other person later said they had changed their mind on that, so it's possible you might have as well. I'm glad to know you do not find pleasure in Sakura's scorpion-induced pain. I hope you enjoyed the Sasori/Sakura/Rikuto dynamics in this chapter...let's just say they were both torn between duty and 'love'. I also hope the fight was up to your expectations. Also, hint, hint, I'm still awaiting your PM and your update), & kiraki13 (I'm glad you noticed. No, it's not weird that you like Cha'ri better as Rikuto than Cha'ri, though I would love to hear your reasons for why you think you might feel that way. And yes, the sibling love is very fun and cute...isn't it funny how a very cold and murderous ninja can, in the right settings, give you the warm fuzzies?) for reviewing!


	44. The Problem with Assumptions…

Disclaimer: Wishes are not horses, my friends…

Chapter 44: The Problem with Assumptions…

The brat was wasting water again. Seemingly as soon as she had been able to move herself with any amount of coordination she had thrown her arms around her Aniki's neck, sobbing out incomprehensibly. The only good thing Sasori could think of about the current set-up was that at least the brat wasn't outright wailing in his ear. The red head just sat there awkwardly, unsure of what he was supposed to do in this situation. He knew that as soon as she had calmed down enough, he would have question her about what she was doing out here and if she needed any other medical attention, but for the moment he sat stalk-still and let the brat cry into his shoulder.

When, many minutes later, the girl started to shift, Sasori knew that she would likely sit back soon, done, at least for the moment, with her waterworks. He was relieved when her arms finally released him. She was just pulling back to look up at him when it happened. He felt the small spike in her Chakra at the same moment the girl's entire body went slack. Slowly she sank back so that she was sitting on the ground, her face upturned to look, not at him, but beyond him. Sasori didn't have to look at her eyes to know they were blue again.

"Brat," Sasori called, trying to keep his voice from sounding too harsh—the last thing he wanted to do was make her start crying again. The pink haired girl didn't so much as flinch as he continued, "if you have the energy for that—" Sasori cut himself off as he realized that unlike the previous times when her eyes had started doing things without her seemingly being aware of it, this time she didn't even react to his voice. "Brat, look at me." He ordered sternly. Under normal circumstances Sasori knew that if the girl didn't out right obey, she at least wouldn't be able to stop herself from stealing a glance at him. She continued staring past him, however, and a glance at her eyes proved that her pupils were planted firmly on the nearly full moon while the blues of her eyes traveled. Even when he maneuvered himself before her, she gave no reaction.

Understanding that this meant the brat was dead to the world, Sasori leaned back, out of her way again, and sighed. "You know," he drawled to the unresponsive girl, "if you were a ninja, this would cost you your life." The girl continued staring upward calmly, calmer than she ever would have been had she heard him. "To say you're full of openings would be an understatement." No response was a good response to that—he was well aware that any response the brat might have given would have left his ears ringing. For once Sasori let himself chuckle as he envisioned the fury the little girl would release on him if she ever thought he was either looking down on her dreams or trying to renegade on their 'promise'. Oh…the girl would pose no danger to him in a physical sense, but he had no doubt that she would still irritate him enough that, in the end, he would have to placate her…that, or bury her six feet under. Unlike with other causes of annoyance, in this case Sasori leaned towards the first option. Though he knew the second was more likely to end any further irritation, he also knew he would never actually kill her, no matter how much she deserved it.

Although it was true that she would make a dreadful ninja if she fell into trances like this, Sasori had to admit, at least to himself, that it was extremely likely that the only reason she had fallen into such a trance had to do with her clear inexperience with her Kekkei Genkai. Ever since he had met the brat, he had sought out and, from time to time, watched the girl's supposed older sister, the one the brat called Kirsche. He had seen the young woman supposedly read people's futures, and he had heard more than he had witnessed about how the woman worked, and never once had that Hoshi fallen into a trance. Or, at least, never a trance like this.

He had once seen the one who called herself Kirsche go into a 'trance' when an old woman ordered her to speak to her dead husband to ask him where he had hidden a family heirloom. Although there was little to no way for the Hoshi to have known, Sasori knew the woman was no widow, but rather a busybody who liked to seek out liars and cheats so that she could expose them. Sasori had found himself quite impressed with the Hoshi's acting. The trance, he knew, was a fake rather than some special Hoshi ability by the simple fact that there was no Chakra spike involved with it. And yet, once the 'trance' ended, the Hoshi woman gave the sneaky old lady her condolences, stating quite cryptically that no such spirit was to be found and that, sadly, the Hoshi could thus not pinpoint any hidden heirloom. The way the Hoshi's eyes had bounced as she said this had made Sasori certain that, although the trance had been false, the answer she gave was an informed one.

For a moment Sasori quit breathing, frozen in place as he stared at the brat's eyes and their strange movement. He was already aware that Kirsche was more experienced than the brat at using her Kekkei Genkai, so it stood to reason that she might also be able to reign in some of the random wanderings of her eyes. He didn't like where this thought was taking him…because it was making him reevaluate the Hoshi's bouncing eyes and informed answer. Before he had assumed that the young woman had somehow caught word of the old woman's game before she arrived…but now he had to face the possibility, slim as it was, that that was not the case at all. Was it possible that somehow the woman had used whatever secrets her Kekkei Genkai held to find the truth? But there had been no spike in Chakra…

Sasori felt like groaning when he realized yet another possible mistake he might have made. He was making too many assumptions. He had assumed that the lack of Chakra spike meant nothing was being done with Chakra, but now that he saw beyond his own preconceptions, he realized that there were actually two other possibilities for the lack of Chakra spike. The first possibly was that the Hoshi had been using her Kekkei Genkai all along, ever since before he came onto the scene, and so he might have not been around the feel the initial Chakra spike when it occurred. The second, less likely but more frightening possibility, was that the Hoshi had such great control over her Chakra that the activation of a Kekkei Genkai didn't register to even his highly tuned senses.

Sasori felt himself tensing as the thought rolled through his head. If his original assumption was wrong, then he sincerely hoped that his first alternate possibility was the truth of it. If it wasn't, he knew what his duty to Suna would force him to do…as a shinobi of Suna, he could not allow a foreigner who could work Jutsu unnoticed—in the center of a market crawling with other ninja, no less—go on doing so. It would be too dangerous to let the likes of her live if that were the case.

Whether it was the shock of the thought that he had miscalculated yet again or the poison running through his veins, Sasori didn't even realize he was releasing killer intent until something happened that knocked him back into his proper senses. The brat's pupils, as well as one of her irises, had snapped to him. Slowly he made himself relax, withdrawing his aura of death. As he did so, first the iris, and soon the pupils, returned to their previous states. With this, he couldn't help but think that perhaps she wasn't as full of holes as he had first thought. Interesting…

The red head was still staring at the brat's face as his thoughts returned to the older Hoshi. Not for a moment did he think the woman's name was really Kirsche, not any more than he thought the brat's true name was Kura, as he had heard her called. Those could possibly be nicknames, but from the overly careful way the Hoshi woman always introduced herself, Sasori found good reason to doubt it. The brat's use of her chosen name was more natural, but the fact that the older girl was clearly suspicious as well as how the brat almost always referred to her by name rather than by some familial title made the young genius have to question both girls' supposed history. As Sasori looked at the brat and though of the young woman who might or might not be her older sister, Sasori was reminded of yet another conclusion he had drawn on an assumption, only this one regarding the brat, not her maybe-sister.

He remembered about earlier, when the girl had been flustered, trying to remember what the older Hoshi had told her about when they would next be coming to Suna. At that time he had felt the slight change in the brat's Chakra—not quite enough to be called a true Chakra spike, but rather more of a distinct fluctuation—as she, in her frustration, turned her back on him. He had found it strange at the time that she had turned into the setting sun, but he had dismissed it because of how quickly she turned back around, having finally found the answer she was looking for…he had also, admittedly, been distracted by her answer and the answer he would have to give her in response. Now, though, he couldn't stop himself from following a very queer thought process.

The brat's Kekkei Genkai was clearly affected by the moon. It stood to reason that it would also be affected by the sun. When the brat couldn't remember what her maybe-sister had told her, she turned to the sun. When the older Hoshi went into her fake trance, her eyes closed, she had tilted her face to the sun. Her booth was set up so that she would always be able to look at the sun, even if it was only that which was reflected from the mirrors sold in the stand across from hers. In either case, the two pink haired girls had shown a propensity to find answers to questions by seeking out celestial bodies. Although there were plenty of other possible explanations for all of these strange coincidences, Sasori didn't believe in coincidences. Luck, perhaps, but not coincidence. And although there were explanations, all very possible, none of them were the same between the two maybe-sisters…all except for the newest, and practically impossible, explanation that Sasori was starting to consider…

He had no proof, however, and he refused to make any more conclusions without concrete evidence. And so, trying to turn his mind and curiosity away from the impossibly possible explanation for how the two Hoshi might have come up with their separate answers using the same method, Sasori instead focused on the girl's arm, where it had fallen to rest in her lap. His eyes automatically sought out the two small puncture wounds on her upper arm. By now they had ceased bleeding entirely. What with the brat oblivious to the world, perhaps now was the best time for him to treat those wounds. He had a feeling that there would be much less crying if he acted now than if waited to ask permission to do so.

This time Sasori wasn't shocked when, as he reached for her arm, the brat's eyes once again momentarily snapped to him. Then, even faster than they had before, the girl's eyes seemed to judge him safe, and returned to their wanderings. Never once did the girl herself stir. Interesting. If, like some people had claimed, he truly had no morals, Sasori might have liked to have tried to actually hurt the girl, just to see what would happen; however, those people were wrong. Although it was true that his logical mind couldn't help but come up with such an experiment, he never contemplated actually implementing the experiment. It wasn't even because he thought himself above such an act, because, had he not been emotionally attached to her, there actually was a small chance he might have done so…but this girl would never expect him to do such a thing, she wouldn't even think it possible…and unconsciously he felt a desire to live up to her naïve expectation.

And so, completely unaware that he was acting uncharacteristically, Sasori brushed aside the thought of the possible experiment and instead grabbed the brat's wrist, wanting to get this over with sooner rather than later. That was how he became aware first that her hand was hot and then, upon closer inspection, that there were climbing lines of red creeping from a small break in the skin of her knuckle to midway up her swollen lower arm.

Anger flared through Sasori, and for a moment his Chakra flared out once again with killing intent, however his anger was not directed at the child whose arm he was holding. If her eyes flicked towards him as they had the previous time, Sasori didn't notice. He was too busy glaring at the wound he hadn't even thought to think might exist.

Sasori had reached a record high for the number of times he'd considered himself a fool in just one hour, let alone one day.

Now he remembered all too well that when the brat had first come running onto the scene, she had already been holding this arm. Why hadn't he thought to check earlier if it was just a minor wound or not? Because he was a fool, plain and simple. He had let the fact that there was a ninety-eight percent chance of any injury she had being negligible, paired with the fact that he _knew_ her arm had been giving her troubles because of the poisoned senbon, impair his judgment.

As he inspected the wound by moonlight as best he could, Sasori swore to himself to never ignore possibilities, not matter how unlikely, until they were proven beyond a doubt to not be true. Errors like that cost lives on the battle field. Sasori brought the girl's hand closer to his face, inspecting the small break in the skin until he was a hundred percent sure he knew exactly its cause and how much danger it presented to the brat's life. Relieved, Sasori set her hand back on her lap gently before pulling out his water canteen and washing off the small wound. Sasori knew very well which scorpion had stung her, and although the brat's hand would probably be hurting her for a few days, other than that, she was in no danger. Maybe this would finally teach her to leave scorpions well enough alone.

As Sasori moved on to wash the two punctures on the brat's upper arm, the red head couldn't help but want to pour cleansing alcohol on her wounds, to help make the lesson stick. There were only two things keeping him back from trying it. The first was the fact that she clearly couldn't feel a thing he was doing right now, because if she could, she would definitely be cringing and sniffling. The second reason he couldn't do so was because he had no alcohol on him. He had come prepared for many things, since he knew he was walking into an ambush, however he had never expected he'd need alcohol. Technically he _still_ didn't need alcohol…but the brat was another story.

After bandaging the girl's injuries, Sasori turned to his own. Although he was aware that, compared to the brats injuries, the slices all over his body were more severe, he cared much less about attending to them. Not only did cleaning out the wounds sting, but Sasori knew that his grandmother would deal with them later, so doing anything more than the basics was pointless. He was just beginning to wonder why his grandmother hadn't shown up yet and if, for once, she might have decided he was able to do a mission like this without her supervision, when the brat started shaking.

The red head returned to the girl's side just as her eyes snapped back together and into their proper places. A moment later their color flickered back to green. He could already see tears starting to form, and so, in an attempt to stop them before they began, Sasori demanded her explanation for why she was out, why she was injured, and why the heck she thought it a good idea to jump into the middle of a ninja battle. To his surprise, she actually flinched and began to cower from him, only to stop and stare. He hadn't thought he had sounded too angry, so he couldn't understand why now, of all times, she had to act afraid of him.

He got his answer a few moments later when, having forgotten both her fear and her tears, she asked, "Is this still Aniki, or is it now Meany—uh, Katsu?"

After all this time, he had forgotten to dispel his Jutsu. He did so now, doing away with his so-called rival's appearance with the hopes of never having to take it up again. The brat blinked a few times in confusion, but after that she seemed to relax. Sasori couldn't help but feel something akin to vindictive pleasure knowing that the brat disliked the oh-so-perfect Katsu. When he repeated his earlier questions, he had to force his voice to sound strict, demanding, and angry, because her reactions were too entertaining for him to keep up his annoyance with her. This time the brat looked rightfully cowed, but not scared. Her response, however, made him glower.

"I don't know—I mean, I didn't—I mean, it wasn't—"

"Brat," Sasori spoke quietly, losing patience but not wanting to show it. He was aware that his having asked so many questions at once had partially led to her floundering answers, but the lack of instant explanations annoyed him none the less. "Start at the beginning." he began again, keeping on his mask of calm. When she only looked at him questioningly, Sasori had to fight to not show his impatience. The brat was many things, but slow to comprehend was not usually one of them…not unless it involved his desire to be left alone…Sasori's mind automatically started proposing possible explanations along with their statistical likelihood for this strange turn of events. The red head tried to ignore the numbers flying through his head as he added, attempting to give the girl a foothold to arrange her thoughts around, "Begin with how you came to be out here."

The brat took in their surroundings. Amazingly, none of the trees had been majorly damaged in the fight, but there were plenty of kunai embedded in trees and ground alike to mark out the place as a battlefield, not to mention the splashes of blood from both him and the second assassin. Thankfully, for the brat's mental health, the first assassin's body was hidden from her current angle. What exactly the girl thought about what she was seeing wasn't evident on her tired face, however it was clear that she wasn't afraid…

"I," the girl began, then paused to lick her lips nervously before she continued. "I came here from the bushes."

It sounded like the brat was going to say more, but Sasori interrupted. He didn't want to be given a step-by-step explanation for how she moved from the inn to the battlefield. "I meant, why are you out here and not asleep at the inn, where you belong?"

Once again the girl looked at him quizzically, one hand going to her head as if that could help her think straight, and then her eyes darted up and to the right, which showed that she was clearly trying hard to remember. Ten excruciating seconds passed in silence. Sasori wanted to bash his head against a wall—this was taking too much time—but he refrained, and not just because there were no walls within sight. Although it took more control than he would ever admit, the red head forced himself to look and act calm as he waited impatiently for the brat's answer. For some reason, he had a bad feeling about the story she was preparing to give him.

He knew his instincts were correct when the brat finally said, "I don't know. One moment I was drinking the tea Cha'ri gave me, and the next I woke up in the bushes…" After a brief pause, the girl seemed to think it necessary to hastily add, "…but I didn't know I woke up in the bushes. I thought I was sleeping, because I was in a cocoon and the moon was full and the flowers looked like they were glowing and there was a big moth with fingers—"

"And what does this have to do with—" Sasori began to ask cautiously, more bad feelings stirring in his gut as he fought to make sense of her onslaught of messed up reasoning.

The brat was seemingly on a roll, however, because she just kept plowing forth, speaking over him as her words continued gushing from her mouth, "—but now I don't think it was a moth with fingers, because it wasn't a dream, and I know because the scorpion was real. I only picked it up because I thought I was dreaming, but I wasn't, and it stung me, and then I woke up, but I was already awake, and the scorpion was still there, and it was coming at me again, so I stomped on it, but my hand hurt so I knew I had to get you, and I knew you would be here because I dreamed you would, and I wanted to save you from the kunai, but I didn't know—"

The girl had to stop to breath. All of her was shaking. It was as she gasped in a breath that Sasori succeeded in unraveling her very confusing confession. It was as she pulled in her second deep breath that he understood all of the terrors hidden in her childishly told tale. Without bothering to give warning, Sasori's hand snapped out to grab the brat's good arm. He thrust what little healing Chakra he had the ability to maintain into the child, not to heal her, but to search her system for any foreign substance he was not already aware of. He found what he had feared to find already in her liver, on its way to being detoxified. If he had had the ability, Sasori would have sped up the process, but he couldn't and so he settled for making one final sweep of the girl's body, just to make sure he wasn't missing anything else, even though it was unlikely. He'd be dammed if he allowed himself to work on assumptions ever again.

It wasn't until he withdrew his Chakra that Sasori realized that the brat had been blabbering—probably since the moment he grabbed her arm—and she sounded frantic. She was saying, "rry—I don't know how to stop from seeing them. I wasn't trying, but I saw the moon, and then the moon became this place where everything was trying to make me look at it at once, attacking me, and it made my head hurt, and then I tried to get away and ended up in the fire-dream, only it wasn't really a dream, because Kirsche said she stopped me from being able to see those, and then I saw that boy in black who left that flickering light on in the kitchen as he snuck away—I didn't see his face, but—"

"Brat," Sasori growled, his heart racing as adrenalin began pumping though his veins once more as everything the brat had said paired with all of the oddities he had noticed about the third assassin came together to form one very nasty picture. "I have to ask, did anyone other than this Cha'ri person give you anything to eat or drink right before you fell asleep?" The girl shook her mop of pink hair from side to side rather than respond verbally. Perhaps she had finally noticed his mood and the severity of the situation…more likely she was simply too tired and drug addled to understand his very sudden change in the conversation. "Who is Cha'ri."

This time the girl had to speak to answer. "She and her parents are staying in the room next to mine." Three people, Sasori realized: two adults and a child or teen. Three assassins: two experts and one with the Chakra signature of a Genin.

It was time for his next question. This time he didn't bother keeping the annoyance from his voice as he asked, "You accepted a drink from a stranger? Didn't your mother teach you that that was dangerous!?"

The girl narrowed her eyes at him, as if her little show of negative emotion could scare him, but she responded dutifully, almost exasperatedly, "I _told_ you my mother is dead—I know I did—and besides, Cha'ri isn't a stranger!" Of course she wasn't, thought Sasori, she was just a newly met assassin-acquaintance that gave you a cup of drugged tea. "She's—" the brat fumbled on, unaware of her silent critic, "sort of like you, she's like my big sister." Of course she was…what was it with this brat and befriending people who could kill her? The girl then added, perhaps having seen some of his thoughts in his eyes (though he swore he hadn't let his emotionless mask slip), "It's true! She said I'm like her little sister." And that might very well have been the truth, given how the third assassin had gone out of their way to keep the brat alive. "She's protected me from bullies, and even once from her father. He hits her, so I don't like him." So she had met the parents? Good.

"Brat," Sasori interrupted before she could defend Cha'ri anymore, "would you recognize this person's parents if you saw them?" The girl instantly nodded. Sasori knew what he had to do, though he wasn't exactly happy to do it. He hadn't wanted the girl to see another dead body, especially not the body of someone she had met before, someone she thought she had known…but unfortunately for the girl, fate had just transpired against her. Unluckily for fate, however, Sasori knew ways to make the experience less traumatic for the girl.

Sighing, Sasori bent down to the girl's level. Thankfully she met his gaze, so he didn't have to direct her to do so, and even more thankfully, her eyes were green, so her Kekkei Genkai wouldn't help her to see through what he was about to do. "I need you to look at someone for me, brat, and you need to tell me if you know them, but before you do, I am going to place a Genjutsu on you." His hands were already speeding through the necessary signs as he explained why it was necessary, "The person you are going to look at is already dead, since they tried to kill me, but I will make it look as if they are just sleeping." He didn't need her to be reminded of the dead baker whose throat she had seen cut right before her eyes…not to mention that the state of the rest of the body, given that it had been used as a meat shield, would probably terrify her.

Shakily the brat nodded her ascent. Sasori nodded, and as soon as he was certain the Genjutsu was in place he started towards the memorial stone. He had expected the girl to follow, but after only a few steps he noticed she hadn't moved, and so he turned around and began to beckon her forward.

She must have misunderstood his gesture, because instead of meekly moving forward she launched herself towards him and grabbed his hand. He began to shake her off, only to stop as he understood that she was likely trying to reassure herself with his presence. It was almost cute—in an annoying sort of way—and since there were no other living people within his area of perception, he let her occupy one of his hands with hers. Gently he led her on to the monument, and then beyond to the body hidden behind.

"No!" the girl gasped before Sasori could even move to lower the mask covering the assassin's mouth and nose. From her tone and the way water was now leaking from her eyes, it was clear that she did recognize the thin man. Still, he had to know, so he asked her who the person was, to which she responded, "She's Cha'ri—it's her mother!" It seemed to take her a lot of effort to say even that much, and so, although Sasori wanted to ask how she could call this man a woman, even if that had been the assassin's disguise, he didn't. The brat's hands were now shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. It was only as he realized that she was now looking beside the man, rather than at the man himself, that Sasori comprehended that his Genjutsu had not included the blood-soaked ground the man lay upon.

Tugging on the girl's hand, Sasori forced her away from the body before she could vomit. They had only moved a few yards before the inevitable happened, and the girl tore from his grip so that she could stumble a few steps more before she proceeded to lose whatever was left of her dinner.

* * *

It was well after midnight and Youko was beyond exhausted. Once again the hospital was a madhouse. It had all started with the announcement that thirty people had come down with summer-colds that came while she and her brother had been visiting Yashamaru. Sachiko-sensei had recognized her as an apprentice, and despite that she wasn't scheduled to work, enlisted Youko to help. Although she had been annoyed, Youko had agreed to help because she knew that the hospital's doctors would need to save their strength for bigger things than colds. While she worked, nearly another fifty people came in with summer-colds. This was on top of the normal number of patients with minor injuries and other ailments.

Then Youko got word that not all of the summer-colds were actually summer-colds. No one bothered to tell her what these 'not summer-colds' were, but she had been able to witness easily enough what it meant for the hospital. Suddenly all doctors were on call, all apprentices, all everyone. Hours had passed, and when Youko had informed her superiors that she hadn't had any dinner, they simply threw her an apple and told her to see to the next patient. She did as she was told, figuring that once the sun set, things would calm down, since only emergencies tended to come to the hospital in the middle of the night and then she would be released and could get some real food. In some ways she was right; as it got later, fewer people came in, but the workload remained just as high.

Youko never did get a dinner break, and once some of those marked as having 'not summer-colds' started showing flu-like symptoms, she lost her appetite. By midnight Youko felt dead…and a number of the 'not summer-colds' started breaking out in open sores. It was only then that she heard one of the head doctors say that enough was enough: he was going to ask the Kazekage to call in the ninja medics, even if some of them were likely to get angry at being called to work in a hospital rather than the field. Youko couldn't understand why any medic would get angry about something like that, but then again, she wasn't a ninja…and she had been too tired to bother asking anyone about it. At one point in the night she thought she caught sight of Karura and Yashamaru (with a crutch) helping out in another room, but she hadn't had the energy to look into it nor the time to stop and chat.

Youko didn't even know what time it was when the hospital doors burst open and a very annoyed looking old woman strode in, followed by a number of equally grumpy-looking men and women. For a moment everyone froze. It took many minutes for Youko to realize who the old woman was. She had never met her before, but once the grey eyed girl realized that the top doctor was running to meet the woman, looking both relieved and browbeaten, did she remember hearing about such a granny. It had to be Lady Chiyo, one of Suna's elders…as well as their best medic. Soon after that the head doctor announced that the apprentices, the interns, as well as one fourth of the normal staff should go home to rest…and that they should return an hour after sunrise.

Youko had been grateful. As she slunk home she was torn between whether she should go straight to bed or if she should grab some food first. She was still torn when she noticed a light on in the kitchen from outside the inn. Although that was strange, at this time of night, it wasn't strange enough to bother Youko. It did, however, make up her mind. Food it was. Tiredly Youko slipped into the inn via the front door, then silently she made her way back to the kitchen. Youko was half-asleep when she opened the kitchen door. The blast of heat that met her changed that.

Youko slammed the door closed—only now noticing that the handle was hot—not caring that she might wake anyone. No—she needed to wake everyone! Screaming 'Fire', Youko ran to the nearest fire extinguisher. Her thought process was that they might lose the kitchen, but maybe they could save the rest of the inn. Grabbing the red canister, Youko raced back to the kitchen door, pulled the pin and activated the extinguisher. To her horror, nothing happened. The fire extinguisher was empty—that, or broken.

So was every other extinguisher she could get her hands on.

Smoke was now pouring into the halls and some of the tenants were poking their heads out of their doors.

"There's a fire! Spread the word! Get out, just in case!" Youko cried to them, flinging herself up the stairs as she did so. She had to awaken her mother and check the upstairs extinguishers. Surely one of them had to work—it was unheard of for so many fire extinguishers to all fail at the same time…especially not when they had all been renewed less than two months ago. As she ran past her brother's door, she shouted out, "Shin, get Kura and clear out, there's a fire!" She didn't bother opening the door—her brother was a light sleeper…unlike their mother and herself.

Slamming her mother's door open, Youko ran in, shouting, and shook her mother until the woman groggily opened her eyes. Many precious moments were wasted as Megumi struggled to wake up, but once she understood the situation, she was up and moving quickly enough. As the two of them rushed out of the room, they saw three of the people who resided on the upper floor fleeing down the stairs. A quick glance in the rooms proved them all to be empty. The smoke was thick now.

Megumi checked the hidden fire extinguisher near the stairs, but not even that one worked. Coughing, the two of them ran down the stairs. An old man was bent over hacking a few feet from the landing. Megumi ran to him, lifting one of his arms over her shoulder. "Come on Mr. Arumoto. Do you know if there's anyone left?"

Between coughs the old man explained that he had sent his grandchild ahead, not wanting to slow her down, and that he had seen everyone else on the first floor leave. Apparently no one had thought to help the old man escape other than his grandchild who was too weak to be of much help. Youko didn't think much of those kinds of people, but there was nothing she could do about it other than grab the old man's other arm and also help lead him out. By the time they had passed through the front door Youko could hardly see through the smoke—and what she could see flickered with orange light.

An older, thin, teenage girl ran to meet them, taking the old man from the two of them with a look of relief. Now that she was outside in the clean air, Youko took deep breaths, then started hacking herself. Her mother did the same. Globs of black phlegm were soon in Youko's palm—but the medical part of her mind told her it was a good thing, so she wasn't as revolted as she would otherwise have been.

Only after she cleared her lungs did she look around at the thirty-odd people gathered before the now clearly burning inn. Everyone looked either scared or devastated, covered in soot and wearing only their nightclothes. Some people were carrying pillowcases that looked like they had items stuffed in them. A part of Youko balked at these people—if they had had time to save items, they should have used that time to help save people! Self-preservation was forgivable, but greed was another story entirely.

Youko's eyes flicked from face to face, searching for her brother and Kura. Their rooms were empty, so Shin must have gotten them out of there safely. She had looked through ever face twice before she felt the first stirrings of renewed panic. She couldn't find either face in the crowd. "Kura!" Youko shouted, hoping that they were just hidden by the masses, "Shin! Where are you? Baby brother!"

"Sis!"

"Youko!"

The mahogany haired girl turned, feeling her heart leap in relief at the sound of her brother's voice. She found not only her brother running towards her, but their uncle as well. Shin must have run to get him, since he lived across from the woodworking shop, not at the inn.

For once it was Shin who grabbed Youko up in an enthusiastic hug. Spinning her in circles, Shin hugged Youko so hard that she almost feared he would break her ribs. "Thank goodness you are alright!" the boy cried. When he finally set her down, it was only so that he could start crying on her shoulder. This was the most emotional she had seen her brother since the day their father had died of pneumonia when they were seven. She couldn't blame him—she was pretty sure she was crying as well.

Youko didn't pull away from her brother until she heard their uncle ask their mother if everyone had gotten out safely. Megumi turned to look at the crowd and started counting. The longer she counted, the more relieved she looked—until she suddenly stopped counting, and then began again. She stopped at the same number both times. Youko felt dread seeping into her heart. She didn't know how many people were supposed to be present, but clearly there was at least one person missing. Megumi was counting again when Shin, who had also been looking around, suddenly asked with a squeaky voice, "Where's Kura?"

Youko's heart skipped a beat—Megumi quit counting. They both looked at each other. Megumi was the one to say, "Her room was empty."

At the same moment Youko turned to Shin to ask fearfully, "Wasn't she with you? I told you to get her out of there!"

Shin's voice wobbled as he sputtered, "W-what are you…? When…?" And then his eyes grew large with fear as he whispered, "Oh, no…" Their uncle grabbed his arm—Shin looked like his legs were about to go out—and asked what was wrong. Shin responded by looking first at the flaming inn and then at Youko, "I was working in the shop until midnight—so uncle said I should spend the night with him rather than risk waking anyone."

"But—" Youko queried, knowing she sounded desperate as she and her mother shared another glance, "her room was empty! We looked, didn't we?" her mother nodded jerkily, as if she too couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Her bed was empty and—" Youko cut herself off as she remembered exactly what she had seen when she'd looked into Kura's room. The bed had been empty not only of Sakura, but her blankets as well. She hadn't thought about it at the time, but now that she was outside, breathing clean air and less in fight-or-flight mode, she could remember tales told in the burn-unit of children hiding under beds and in closets when they were afraid…and how more than one child had been killed by a fire by thinking that they could hide from it in just such a fashion.

"No…" Youko breathed, not even aware she was speaking aloud, "…Kura's too smart to hide under her bed from a fire…" It was true. Youko knew it was true. Her little pink haired friend was insanely smart for her age…but the grey eyed girl also knew that, emotionally, her friend was behind the times. Still, even if she was terrified, Kura wouldn't have hidden from a fire! She would know better than that! Then a thought hit Youko: Kura had been alone. For the first time in a long time Kura had slept completely alone. There had been no Youko, no Karura, not even a Krische…there had been no one there for the girl to go to if she woke up in the middle of the night.

Kura would never hide from a fire…but what about a nightmare?

Megumi must have come to her own conclusion, because she turned around and, before any of them could stop her, ran back into the building. For a split second Youko thought about stopping her, but then she realized that if Sakura was hidden under her bed and was unconscious, Megumi wouldn't be able to fit to get her out. In the next split second she was running after her mother. She felt a hand try to grab her back, but it didn't get a good purchase on her arm, and she was able to run back into the burning building after her mother.

* * *

It was as the brat was puking that the idea came to Sasori. It started with him thinking about the assassins and their disguise. They clearly came into Suna pretending to be a family, and they most likely did so because they knew the stupid gate guards would likely think that assassins wouldn't drag children with them, not even a Genin, for fear that a child would disrupt the mission. The gate guards were idiots, clearly, because the assassin's disguise had evidently worked. These thoughts led Sasori to wonder if perhaps the brat's "Cha'ri" had been in a disguise similar to "her mother's". Something was nagging at the back of his head, telling him that was likely the case, but it took him many moments to figure out what that something was. When he realized what it was, he almost balked at the thought. It seemed an impossibility, but the more he thought about the day's events, the more sure he became that it wasn't. Still, there was no evidence…at least, not yet.

Sasori waited until after the girl had cleaned her mouth out with water from his canteen to act upon his idea. Casually the red head asked, "You said that the father hit Cha'ri?" the brat nodded. Sasori knew that that would explain why the third assassin hadn't bothered to help his comrades—the third assassin likely didn't even think of them as comrades. Keeping to his plan, Sasori immediately asked another, seemingly unconnected question, "Has Cha'ri ever said anything strange to you?"

At first she said no, but after a bit more cajoling, Sasori got her to relax enough to tell him how she and Cha'ri first met. This was how he found out about the 'strange question' about fire extinguishers. He nodded calmly, though calm was the last thing he was feeling at the moment. After that he asked her a few more questions, one right after the other, that, at least in appearance, were getting farther and farther from topic. He was not giving her time to think about why he might be asking these questions or, more to the point, he was not giving her time to think of false answers while simultaneously working to make her relax. It helped that the night's events seemed to finally be catching up with the yawning nine-year-old.

As casually as he had asked all of his other questions, Sasori asked the younger girl, "You can see the future?"

Tiredly the brat replied, "Only som—" and then she cut herself off by slapping her hands over her mouth. Her green eyes were now wide and she was shaking her head from side to side, hands and all, claiming that she could not. She was a terrible liar. Clearly someone, most likely the other Hoshi girl, had told her to keep it secret, but between pain, drugs and exhaustion, as well as his purposeful manipulation of the situation, she had begun to answer him automatically with the truth. He was only surprised that she had realized mid-way what she was doing, since she didn't seem to have noticed that earlier she had been talking about seeing visions of flickering lights and sneaking boys because of the moon—another thing she had undoubtedly been told not to talk about.

Sasori could only shake his head. It was crazy to think that such a thing as seeing the future was possible…but the more he had thought about it, the more he had realized there was no concrete evidence suggesting that it was impossible. In fact, with everything the brat had said in the past hour, he had all but concrete evidence suggesting the opposite. It was crazy, completely crazy, not to mention illogical…but on the off chance that the brat was right and that she wasn't just letting the medley of drugs in her system do her talking for her—

Sasori continued casually, ignoring her silent lie. "You had said you saw a flickering light in the inn's kitchen?" Slowly the girl removed her hands from her mouth as she nodded hesitantly, as if she feared she might be breaking some rule by admitting to it. She probably was. "Then we must leave now."

"Wha—?" The girl questioned, only to be cut off as Sasori grabbed her around the waist and threw her unceremoniously over one shoulder—he knew better than to trust her in her current state to be able to keep a hold of him by her own power. Ignoring the tingling sensation that was the drugs in his own system, Sasori wasted no more time or breath explaining as he loped of towards the wooden inn.

Although it was true that the brat might just be speaking drugged-nonsense, there was no denying that she seemed to have known he'd be targeted by a kunai before she found him, and even if that had been a post-awareness statement, it was also true that the second assassin's 'dying' message had been "scatter and destroy". The 'scatter' part was easy to explain, but 'destroy'…that could be taken many ways. Thanks to the brat, he had a feeling, though, that he knew exactly what it did mean. One way or the other, he would find out if his hypothesis was correct soon enough.

Sasori let his grim smile show.

Thanks to this mite of a girl, he now had a chance to catch the third assassin and, possibly, a chance to stop the assassin's attempts to cover Mist's tracks.

* * *

Well, what can I say…Sasori took over again. What I found funny as I was making this chapter was how Youko's part kept moving around. It was actually the first thing I wrote, and then I began Sasori's part. Then, in the middle of writing Sasori's part, I realized that Youko's part should probably be moved after Sasori's for dramatic effect, so I did that. Then, as I was writing Sasori's part, I had good inspiration for what became the second of Sasori's parts, so I wrote that before returning to the first of Sasori's parts. I then worked to connect the two Sasori's parts…however, as I was rereading through things I realized that Youko's part would actually work well, both for dramatic effect and for approximate timing, smack dab in between the two parts I had worked so hard to conjoin…and so I made them into two parts again, and moved Youko's part…again… And in the end all I could think was that Youko's part jumping all around actually fit her character…because she is sort of flighty sometimes.

Now that you've had to suffer through my thoughts on writing, I suppose I can say that I'll attempt to update in approximately two weeks, so around Oct. 3rd. I will warn you that I have some deadlines coming up around that time, and unlike my fanfic deadlines, they are non-negotiable, so all I can say is that I'll try, but I can't promise that I'll be as prompt with my update as I would like to be.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome to some cute, cuddly photos taken in secret of Sakura and Sasori holding hands…flamers will be indicated as the ones who took the photos to Sasori when he finds out and wants to kill the culprit. —pause— Now that the flamers have run away screaming, let's move on to the _pretty list_!

Thanks to: general zargon (I'm glad you liked the battle, and I'm sorry you don't like Kirsche. I am in agreement with you that the emotional side of Sasori can be very enjoyable...I hope you liked the hand holding this time around. You've now gotten your answer to the Jonin questions, but you'll have to wait to see if Rikuto ends up being caught or not.), ZellaLaBella (Yes, the inside of Sasori's mind is a very interesting place. I've been trying to show how he might have become the 'emotionless' puppet of the manga while still leaving him entirely, realistically, human. He's pretty much a really smart boy with a lot of emotional issues that no one else notices because he keeps them so well hidden), BriEva (the answers to your questions were answered in this chapter. And, as you said, of course he'd noticed...it just is a bit of a delayed notice...one of which he's not particularly happy about. I'm glad the fight was up to your standards...sometimes it's hard to know if you're making a fight understandable or realistic), moodymel (yes, I liked that part as well...and you're right, it is supposed to be a turning point...same thing with the Sasori/Aniki thing), & flacaurmama (Actually, the two senbon were not the suffocation poison and it's antidote, but rather the antidote to the suffocation poison flying around on the kunai and a paralysis poison to better keep her out of the way of harm...as to who and why, Sasori has already shared his thoughts on this matter...I'm almost afraid to ask if before this chapter you weren't happy with something, because of the wording you used) for reviewing!


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